LA 



.s 



\\ 



B i v 


Ji^ht 

















Class 




Book. H < ^f U S 



Copyright}! . 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 




MISS MAE MCKENZIE, DEACONESS 
{The Morning -Glory) 



THE 



^st> 



By Cora Gannaway Williams 



Nashville, Tejjn. ; Dallas, Tex. 

Publishing House of the M. E. Church, South 

Smith & Lamar, Agents 

igio 

I 



«ss> 



Copyright, 1910 

BY 

Cora Gannaway Williams 



©CI.A2614R8 



^ 



Ota 

MY BEAUTIFUL MOTHER 

WHOSE EYES 

WILL SOME DAY 

LIGHT THE GLORY LAND 

I LOVINGLY DEDICATE THESE 

WORDS 



(3) 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I Page 

The Mill Town n 

CHAPTER II 
The Separation 24 

CHAPTER III 
The Georgia Home 31 

CHAPTER IV 
Home Missions 44 

CHAPTER V 
TnE Awakening 61 

CHAPTER VI 
The Healing Springs 79 

CHAPTER VII 
Croley's Camp 86 

CHAPTER VIII 
Fulfillment 105 

CHAPTER IX 
Closing of the Flower. . .' 122 

CHAPTER X 
After a While 139 



INTRODUCTION 

I have read with delight the 'Morning- 
Glory," and recognize under its slightly 
changed name the life story of Miss Mae Mc- 
Kenzie, the Deaconess of the lumber camp of 
Crossett, Ark., of whose beautiful life and work 
I had known. In short, this story was writ- 
ten at my request, as I was impressed by what 
it would mean for many to know of the fruit 
of one beautiful life dedicated to Christ where 
most needed. I had known Miss McKenzie dur- 
ing her years of training at the Scarritt Bible 
and Training School, and was orepared to 
learn of her subsequent great usefulness. 

Mrs. Dr. F. M. Williams, the gifted writer 
of this story, could not speak without deep 
emotion of the fragrance of Miss McKenzie's 
life work exhaled at every fireside in Crossett; 
and so I begged her to return there after the 
annual meeting of the Little Rock Conference 
Home Mission Society until she could catch and 
reproduce the local color of the lumber camp 

-(7) 



8 THE MORNING-GLORY 

which would be necessary to reproduce the life 
and work of the Deaconess who wrought there. 

I commend the charming and inspiring story, 
which must make all our pulse-beats quicken 
with a desire to wisely invest our lives. 

Eugene R. Hendrix. 

Kansas City, Mo. 



FOREWORD 

In attempting to portray the life and work 
of Mae McKenzie, Deaconess of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, South, fancy betook me to 
her realm and plucked a bouquet from her 
garden of romance and imaginings, leaving but 
the cords of truth that bind the blossoms. 

Whatever of good is found in the charac- 
ter of the "Morning-Glory" may be attributed to 
the real character, Mae McKenzie, whose life 
made this little story possible. 

Mrs. F. M. Williams. 
Hot Springs, Ark., April, 1910. 

(9) 



The JtornirwL-Glory 



CHAPTER I 
THE MILL TOWN 



K^Kga 



T was a happy day for the mill town 
of Floss when May Kenny stepped 
from the small, plain coach that ran 
on the narrow-gauge road that 
brought all the supplies to the employes of the 
Floss Lumber Company. 

The preacher, the postmaster, the hotel man, 
and the merchant watched the little engine puff 
and blow as if it felt that it had been over- 
burdened by its extra load of one passenger — 
and she such a wee thing — besides the usual 
supplies of meat and meal, bacon and beans, 
overalls, and all other things necessary to the 
life of an isolated lumber camp. 

The spectators were about to forget the little 
mite that wore the plain black dress with 
white tie strings, collar, and cuffs; but when 

(11) 



12 THE MORNING-GLORY 

the preacher looked around he met a kindly 
smile that told him she forgave him for the 
momentary forgetfulness in the presence of the 
one medium of the week by which they heard 
from the outer world — the weekly train on the 
L. and T. Road to the lumber camp in Arkan- 
sas, where nearly a thousand souls were shut 
in from the world at large. 

The wonder is that all the inhabitants of 
Floss did not turn out to see this weekly train ; 
but at this hour of the day all the men were 
at the mill or in the woods. The preacher's 
wife had not come yet — as there was no par- 
sonage, of course, and a suitable place had not 
been found. The teacher, with much restraint, 
held the handful of children to their books, 
some needing the nursery far more than the 
primer; but it was convenient for the mothers 
for the children to go to school. Mrs. Regent 
had not returned from her visit to her father, 
and some feared she never would; and Mrs. 
Bright was cleaning up for the newcomer, 
these two being the only female members of 
this mill town family who could indulge in the 
luxury of seeing the train come in. 



THE MILL TOWN 13 

The preacher took her handbag and said: 
"Tis but a step to Sister Bright's; and some 
of the men will bring your trunk over after the 
mill closes. I'm 'batching' until after wife 
comes." 

He had really not noticed the beautiful light 
in her eyes till she drew a deep breath and 
said: "O, the breath of the pines seems rest- 
ful and healing. May my mission here be but 
the story of the pines— to refresh and to cure! 
For there were tired hands and hearts in 
Floss, and many sore spots to be healed. 

After a short walk over ground newly cut 
of its trees, both large and small, leaving just 
enough of the younger growth to take away 
the glare of a September sun in a Southern 
clime, they reached Sister Bright's house ( ?) . 
Yes, it was a house. It had two rooms, although 
one was a "lean-to," and both were stripped on 
the outside. She was at the door; for by this 
time she had washed enough dishes for dinner, 
and had pushed the pile of dirty clothes under 
the bed so they were not so noticeable as they 
were in the corner, and an unironed sheet as- 
sumed the dignity of bedspread. On the 



14 THE MORNING-GLORY 

crowded table, where were some papers, a Bi- 
ble, a broken-mouthed pitcher containing her 
"specs" and a writing pen that was rarely used, 
a sunbonnet, apron, and a checked waist, was 
a bunch of flowers that had lived through the 
heat of summer, tightly squeezed into a tumbler 
half filled with water. That to Mrs. Bright 
was the best preparation she could make for 
her new boarder — for she occasionally kept a 
boarder till other arrangements could be made 
(which was usually very speedily done) — but 
the flowers told a story of welcome, a story of 
kindness of heart hidden behind the poor house- 
keeping in particular, and seeming carelessness 
in things in general. 

"Well, come right in, honey. You look 
mighty little to do anything with the strong men 
of this here camp ; but I guess them women 
knowed what they was doin' when they sont 
you here," she said in her drawling, nasal 
tones, nevertheless giving her a hearty hand- 
shake and a kiss plump on the cheek before May 
Kenny knew it. "I alius like to be kissed when 
I'm lonesome; and I dare say you are a bit 
lonesome in this here strange place — and me 



THE MILL TOWN 15 

about the onliest woman you'll be seein' much 
for some time." After untying the strings of 
the little bonnet and laying it with a bit of 
tenderness on the bed, she looked the new- 
comer over again and said : "I do declare ; and 
you are the Deaconess ! I thought you'd be 
big — like my man Jim, almost — and so strong- 
like you could whup a man if he didn't do just 
right; but you be the littlest, delicatest, woman 
what's ever been to this camp, and I am afeard 
you can't do much with sich men as Josh 
Strong and Bill Bimes and them. But I tell 
you now, I'll do the fightin' for ye if ye have 
any to do." 

The little Deaconess was almost over- 
whelmed with this interpretation of her work; 
but with a sweet smile said : "Why, Mrs. Bright, 
I have not come to fight your people, but to 
help them by loving them ; and we shall do 
great things through Him who said, 'Not by 
might, nor by power, but by my Spirit/ " 

The noonday meal was wholly characteristic 
of Mrs. Bright; for with her lack of the con- 
ventionalities that mark a cultured woman 
she possessed the iron and grit of true woman- 



16 THE MORNING-GLORY 

hood, so her meal was wholesome if not at- 
tractive. 

"Turnip greens is a good tonic, I alius 
heerd ; and fall greens is specially good to keep 
off chills. The doctor says they's miasmy 
about so much underbrush, and we have to be 
kinder keerful like; but there's some poached 
eggs for ye if ye don't take to greens. And I 
kilt my prettiest speckled pullit, and she a-layin' 
ever' day, so help yerself. I hope ye can eat." 

As she was doing all this talking Mrs. Bright 
poured out a glass of rich buttermilk, and 
turned the glass of flowers so the petunias and 
phlox would be opposite May's plate. 

"I see you love flowers," said May. "Have 
you no children, Mrs. Bright?" 

"Yes, I do love flowers; they seem kinder 
like folks to me — better'n some folks. They 
jist bloom along and give out their sweet scents, 
and never say anything mean about anybody. 
And they jes' seem to love you for everything 
you do for them. Children? O, yes. Me and 
my first husband had two, and they died; me 
and my second husband had two, and they died ; 
and me and my third husband, had .three, and 



THE MILL TOWN 17 

they died ; and me and the rest of 'em — we ain't 
had no more. I reckon the good Lord knew 
best when he took 'em away, 'cause I've had 
kind of a hard time, and little babies are so 
much like angels they need a tenderer care than 
I could give 'em. That's the reason I never 
have any of these little tender flowers: they 
alius die for me — sich things as lace moss, 
heliotrope, and begonias. Jes' give me bache- 
lor's buttons, prince's feathers, hollyhocks, and 
phlox, and petunias do beat all for dry weather. 
They jes' bloom and bloom, and tell me over 
and over again about my little children up in 
heaven jes' a-pickin' flowers all the time prettier 
than them." 

Seeing the shadow that had fallen across the 
dear old face, May asked about the mill and 
the camp and how she liked this life. Where- 
upon the old lady told how some one must 
bear hardships for the pleasures of others — 
pleasures resulting from toil and hardship borne 
by some one at the other end of the line. The 
man in the hold of the vessel while the passen- 
gers swiftly ride the waves at ease, the engineer 
at the throttle while the sleepers enjoy the palace 
2 



18 THE MORNING-GLORY 

car, the enclurer of the heat of the furnace 
that electric fans, cars, and machinery may run 
— how quickly the world at ease forgets the 
other half that makes these comforts possible. 

Mrs. Bright and the other men and women 
at Floss were living this narrow, isolated life 
that Milady in some distant city might have 
her drawing-room fitted up in elegance, or 
that others might ride in beautiful carriages 
made of the material therefrom. 

Until certain improvements in machinery 
could be made, there were several places of 
great danger to life and responsibility. Jim 
Bright was a fearless fellow and one wholly 
reliable when at work; therefore the Company 
counted much on him. But with his 225 
pounds of avoirdupois and brawny muscle, Jim 
Bright was a weakling, for a monster fastened 
itself upon him and destroyed his will. That 
monster was the liquor habit. With all his ef- 
ficiency for mill service, when Jim was overcome 
by this thirst for drink his part of the work 
must go undone; and he was as helpless as a 
babe. Thus the finger was laid upon one of 
the sore spots of Floss — a sore to be healed by 



THE MILL TOWN 19 

the oil of love, poured by the hand of the 
woman with the white tie strings on her bonnet. 

When the evening shades began to fall, May 
said she would take a little walk and look 
around her new home; so she left the little 
house with her mind full of the new things 
about her, and her heart longing for the loved 
ones she had left. 

The heavy buzz of the mill was gradually dy- 
ing with the sun as the last rays peeped 
through the trees as he slipped away to his 
grave for the night. Inside the mill was hurry 
and bustle incident to the closing; outside was 
the gray plank wall that kept many secrets of 
wounds to soul and body from the outside 
world. This side the mill was the supply store, 
low but covering much ground, for everything 
needful to the camp was bought there. Tents 
were scattered thickly about, some grouped with 
regularity but many pitched with no thought 
but to be away from the others. Here and there 
was a small house. Beyond was the wood, 
acre after acre, mile after mile of trees — trees 
of all sizes from the tiny sprig at your feet 
to the majestic monarch of the forest which in 



20 THE MORNING-GLORY 

his heart boasted the longest life of all his 
neighbors around. 

As she walked she mused more than said: 
"I have always wanted to go to the foreign 
field for mission work, and could not; to-day 
finds me in service in my own land. But isn't 
this foreign to me, or isn't this as needy of 
help? and can I not serve Him just as truly 
as if I'd sailed across the watery seas instead 
of this sea of wood, and find souls that need 
help, the same as in heathen lands? 'Twere 
easier to tell one of a true God than to reconcile 
one who has strayed away; my task is hard, 
but I can 'do all things through Christ which 
strengtheneth me.' " 

That night as Bill Bimes and Josh Strong 
walked back to their tent (for they had brought 
up the trunk from the little stationhouse), Bill 
said : "I thought angels alius wore white, but 
seems like we've jest seed one dressed in black." 

The men went to bed without their usual 
round of gambling and vile words. Somehow, 
they felt like some spirit hovered about them 
that made them think of the far-away days when 
they were better and the world seemed kinder 



THE MILL TOWN 21 

to them; for it was this unrest and lack of fel- 
lowship between employer and employee that 
made the Company resort to the last means of 
overcoming the evil that pervaded their camp — 
that of employing a deaconess, as their visitor 
had suggested. 

Next morning Jim Bright said: "Ma" — he 
called her "ma," although none of the dead 
children were his — "she looks like a mornin'- 
glory to me. You know they climb around 
anything that gives them support, and then jes' 
hide it all with purty blossoms. I believe she's 
the Floss Lumber Company's mornin'-glory." 

Thus did May Kenny enter upon her mission 
at the mill town of Floss, where the felling of 
trees, the buzzing of saws, and the need of 
human hearts had marked a center of activity 
in the world — perhaps not so attractive or seem- 
ingly powerful, but as necessary to the progress 
of the world as any commodity we possess. 
For who could imagine a world without wood 
and its varied products ? For building the ships 
that ride the seas, the trains that carry the com- 
merce of the world, the homes we live in, the 
fuel we burn, the furniture we enjoy, and its 



22 THE MORNING-GLORY 

many other uses make the lumber camp an enter- 
prise worthy our best consideration. Even more 
may be said of the buried lives in cotton mills 
and factories; but as the kind, good Father 
heard the deep cry of Israel when in bondage 
of mortar and brick, and raised up a deliverer, 
so the cry of other ages has reached his ear, 
and delivery will come in his name. 

Two nights before her entrance upon her 
duties as deaconess at Floss, May Kenny stood 
at the door of the old home and said good-by 
to the only one who had ever claimed a place 
in her heart in that way known to all women, 
and cherished as the love that lightens labor. 

"Yes, George, I must go," she said. "I feel 
the call ; and although I love you, I cannot marry 
you, for you will not give yourself to God. I 
feel impelled to do this work." She listened 
not to his pleadings to give up the work she 
had chosen while he was away; but bade him 
good-by hastily to keep from weakening in her 
purpose. 

While George Gaylor had stoutly refused to 
entertain any religious thought, he ardently 
loved the little woman he had just bade adieu, 



THE MILL TOWN 23 

and her image was sufficient enthronement for 
his worship. 

May Kenny felt that she must be true to her 
purpose and heed the call of the voices that 
called her in the years agone, but whose voices 
had resounded till the echo fell upon her ear 
from those about her in the home land ; so she 
put from her the vision of marital joys and 
sacrificed a life of gayety in the society world 
to follow the lowly Nazarene. Did not Moses 
suffer the affliction of his people rather than be 
called the son of Pharoah's daughter? and was 
not the Saviour of mankind the great sacri- 
ficial gift of the whole world? 

Who has not written in her heart the story 
of a love over which she ponders in the long 
hours of the night when sleep betakes itself 
to realms unknown? or who has not on mem- 
ory's wall the picture of a face that is the light 
of the world when all else is dark? So there 
was not only a lonely heart in Arkansas that 
first night at the camp, but in Southern Geor- 
gia in a manly bosom there throbbed a heart 
lonely and sad for the light that had gone from 
his life. 




CHAPTER II • 

THE SEPARATION 

EXT morning after the parting of 
George Gaylor and May Kenny, 
George said to his aunt at the break- 
fast table (for his parents had 
been dead many years, and he made his home 
with an aunt of whom he was very fond) : 
a Auntie, I have changed my plans. I am 
going away again. When a fellow once gets 
started on the run, it is hard for him to be sat- 
isfied long at one place. I find the work that I 
expected to take up not ready for me, for the 
death of Mr. Brown keeps his funds tied up 
for two years in court, and he was the largest 
investor; so I have decided to take another 
jaunt. I hardly know where, but you can ad- 
dress my letters to Galveston, general delivery. 
I will be there awhile, and will leave directions 
to have my mail forwarded. You know I will 
be all right, so you needn't hear from me very 
often. "I am going this evening — and, dear 
auntie, could you pack a roving fellow's trunk 
(24) 



THE SEPARATION 25 

for him? I'll tackle the suit case, for there are 
a few things I want right with me. I must 
see some people to-day; so I won't be home to 
lunch, but will be up about four o'clock." 

"George," said his aunt, "I am sorry you are 
going away so soon. I had hoped you were 
home to stay, and that some day you and that 
sweet May Kenny would marry and be happy 
in your own home. I'm getting old now, and 
you will need somebody else to love you." 

"Well, little mother," as he often tenderly 
called her, "I rather hoped that too, but I 
guess I am booked for a bachelor. Don't you 
think I'd make a pretty good one?" not once 
hinting at the deep disappointment in his heart. 

"I hope that this will be your last journey, and 
that you will come home satisfied to settle down 
and make dear old Georgia your home," said 
Aunt Emily. "Ill have everything ready for 
you if you must go." 

Hastily arranging his business affairs, George 
was at his aunt's promptly at four o'clock; and 
with an early but sumptuous dinner they en- 
joyed the sweet companionship that had been 
theirs for so long, but interrupted of late years 



26 THE MORNING-GLORY 

by his travels. Fortune had smiled beneficently 
upon this son of the South, and plenty greeted 
him at every turn. 

When Mrs. Ross knew that her boy, as she 
called him, was going away, she went at once 
to pack his trunk and prepare for him a good 
meal, as the mother of the house is so prone 
to do — show her love by a sumptuous feast. All 
of the favorite dishes of his childhood were 
found at that evening meal, not the least of 
which was the chess cake which Aunt Emily 
alone knew just how to make to perfection. 

With tenderest affection he told his "little 
mother" good-by, promising that this should 
really be his last long journey. 

As the two trains sped along, one to the 
North and the other to the South, separating 
more and more two hearts that beat as one, the 
ever-widening space seemed but a reflection of 
the ever-increasing vacancy in each heart. 

Arriving in Galveston on the same day that a 
large immigrant vessel was expected, George 
joined the crowd to the pier to see the interest- 
ing sight of its landing. Who can describe the 
feelings experienced by watchers when a ship 



THE SEPARATION 27 

comes in? There are weary watchers for loved 
ones from whom they have had no word since 
they said good-by months before and left them 
to God and the waves. Friend waiting for 
friend, lover for loved one, tradesmen for their 
wares, but no one to welcome the hundreds and 
thousands of strangers who, with their strange 
packages and strange clothing, are coming to 
a strange land to make their future home. From 
fabulous tales they think they have reached the 
"flowery beds of ease" upon which they can be 
carried all over the wonderland of America. 
What more pitiful sight could be imagined than 
that which met George Gaylor's eyes that Sep- 
tember evening as the sun was losing himself 
in the watery waste before him, flooding the 
sky and water with a glorious light that be- 
tokened a light that would never grow dim, a 
light that was the Son himself? Never before 
had God felt so near to George and man so 
far away. In pity all his heart went out to the 
hundreds who, with anxiety written on their 
faces, went hurrying to and fro, looking wildly 
here and there as for some familiar face or 
kind, outstretched hand ; but besides the of- 



28 THE MORNING-GLORY 

ficial who gave the rigid examination and neces- 
sary directions no one stood to help or greet 
the throng. A million of these foreigners land 
on our shores every year, with facilities far in- 
adequate to meet the needs, leaving them to 
seek the poorest and worst parts of the city in 
which they land, feeding the mill that grinds 
out our quota of criminals each year, or falling 
into the hands of swindlers who tell them of 
splendid places, getting all their savings but 
giving nothing in return. Many young girls, 
hearing of the high wage for work, come alone, 
only to be met by the shark who traffics in 
human lives at the cost of souls. 

Did May tell him she was giving her life to 
home missions? What greater need could 
there be for missions than here ? And other sea- 
ports must be the same. When George Gaylor 
tried to sleep that night, it seemed that thou- 
sands were looking at him, crying piteously for 
help, the most pathetic scene being the young 
mother with her babe sitting by her little bundle 
all the night through, fearing to miss the hus- 
band who had come several months before to 
prepare a home, she not knowing till the next 



THE SEPARATION 29 

day that his life was counted in the rouna num- 
ber of dead in the last mine explosion. In his 
dream she faded away as so often they do when, 
with broken hearts, life is bartered and they slip 
into eternity and the world knows it not. O 
the sad, unwritten stories of Blackwell Island 
and its counterparts ! 

Men and women of the Church, arouse ye 
and give Christian help to those of the nations 
who touch our shores on the East, South, and 
West, and who are to be the future citizens 
of America ! 

We shall not attempt to follow George in 
his wanderings, but entrust him to God 
and the mercy of the waves as he sails over 
the ocean blue, seeking, as thousands do, 
ease for a troubled spirit which could find rest 
on the breast of Him who says : "Come unto me, 
. . . and I will give you rest." One day at 
Liverpool, witnessing an American vessel com- 
ing into port, he was impressed with the contrast 
in the class of people on board to the scene he 
had witnessed in Galveston — these well-dressed, 
intelligent, well-to-do sightseers or students 
seeking to pursue their courses in music, art, 



30 THE MORNING-GLORY 

or medicine, spending their hundreds and thou- 
sands of dollars each year; and the immigrants 
landing in America poor, ignorant, and un- 
kempt, to be assimilated into our civilization, 
either beclouding or adding to its clearness as 
the drop of ink or the clear water affects the 
pure water in the glass before you. 




CHAPTER III 

THE GEORGIA HOME 

|N Southern Georgia, where the 
grass grows greenest, the flowers 
bloom sweetest, and the birds sing 
happiest, twin sisters were playing 
one day under the shade of a magnolia tree. Be- 
side the shell-bordered walk lay the large New- 
foundland dog, and nearer the old-fashioned 
house stood the negro girl, both guard and play- 
mate of the little girls. Did an unfriendly form 
appear, Rex at once inquired if he were friend or 
foe; and with no thought of protection to him- 
self, ever guarded the safety of his twin owners, 
May and Maud. Sally, the maid, was more of a 
playmate than a servant, and bore with acquies- 
cence the brunt of childish squabbles for the 
kindness she was sure to enjoy at other times. 

"O Maud, what are you going to be?" said 
May when the things were all arranged for a 
good hour's play. 

"Why, I'm going to be a mamma just like 
our mamma. When I grow big I'm going to 

(31) 



32 THE MORNING-GLORY 

marry Elmer Joy; and we will live in a big 
house and, O, be so happy. What are you 
going to be when you are a big woman ?" 

"Let me tell you, little sister [the few minutes* 
difference in the birth of the little girls giving 
May the privilege of seeming much older], I'm 
going to be a missionary. The other day I put 
the big shell by the step yonder to my ear 
(and you know they say the shell tells the story 
of the sea) ; and in the deep murmur I could 
hear the voices of millions moaning because 
they had no living God, and were dying without 
a loving Saviour. When I am grown, I'll sail 
over this great sea and tell them about our 
God." 

With that a light shone in her eyes that Maud 
had never seen before ; and of a sudden her face 
grew white, and Maud said: "Sister, what is 
the matter?" 

"Something went 'thump' in my breast, then 
stopped still. It must be my heart, and I am 
tired. I guess we worked too hard making the 
playhouse ready. Let's go in and rest awhile," 
said May. 

When that early autumn day closed, and 



THE GEORGIA HOME 33 

marked another milestone in the lives of the 
little girls — for they were twelve that day — May 
Kenny had been transformed into the realm 
of womanhood; for she had seen a vision, a 
vision of a lost world, with its people crying 
out in the dark for help and restoration to a 
loving Father. Henceforth she would give her 
life for her fellows ; for to her had come the 
message: "Greater love hath no man than this, 
that a man lay down his life for his friends." 

The days and months sped quickly; for when 
one has a purpose, time speeds on swifter wings 
than to the one who drags out his days with 
no aim in view. All things point to the one 
great purpose of life; hence our men of vision 
have given to the world a glimpse of the vast 
expanse that has been theirs. 

The school days at home were soon ended ; 
for with diligence she applied herself, and 
finished at sixteen. 

Then came the hardest trial of her life, when 
she must leave home to pursue the studies she 
craved; but happily a near-by city claimed the 
oldest female college in our country, and whose 
high degree of scholarship elicited the esteem of 
3 



34 THE MORNING-GLORY 

all educators. So with the vision of the days be- 
fore her, she strongly bade adieu to the dear 
ones at home. 

It was a sad day in the Kenny home when the 
little old-fashioned trunk bore away all the per- 
sonal belongings of the one who was the heart's- 
ease of the household. Whatever trouble arose, 
May was the one to pour oil on the troubled 
waters and bring order out of any confusion. 

Little sister was left behind; for the delicate 
mother could not spare both her daughters, and 
Maud seemed the little housekeeper of the two. 

That night when May lay down to sleep for 
the first time without her twin sister she felt 
lost, and a sense of loneliness that she had never 
before known crept into her heart; and with 
head buried in her pillow, she cried herself 
to sleep, as many a lonely schoolgirl has done 
before and since. 

As the sun crept through the white-curtained 
window of Wesleyan College next morning, May 
awoke, dreaming of the day when she and Maud 
were under the magnolia tree, and she heard the 
call to service. It had been her sad pleasure to 
keep flowers on the grave of poor Rex, who had 



THE GEORGIA HOME 35 

died shortly after that day. Sally had married 
the gardener's boy, and had gone to housekeep- 
ing, it being one of the pleasures of her last 
year at home to steal away with little sister and 
enjoy some of Sally's delicious cookies just as 
she took them from the oven. They so often 
happened in on a cooky day. 

Sally's mother had been with the Kennys ever 
since she could remember, being of the aristoc- 
racy of the colored race that deemed it dis- 
graceful to "leave Missus jes' 'cause dey could." 
No, she didn't "want no better home 'an she 
alius had;" so Sally was one of the rare type 
of genteel negroes whose home was neat and 
clean in its general appearance, and whose in- 
mates were clean and virtuous in their lives. 

Soon May adjusted herself to her new sur- 
roundings, and quickly crept into the hearts of 
teachers and pupils ; and it was not long before 
she was the comforter of all troubled hearts. 
As the flower naturally turns to the sun for 
light and heat, so all troubled hearts turned to 
her for comfort. For in her face beamed the 
light that "shone more and more unto the per- 
fect day," reflecting on each one who came in 



36 THE MORNING-GLORY 

contact with her the "peace which passeth all 
understanding." 

Besides the necessary routine of school life 
and its annual opening and closing exercises, 
but two incidents worthy of special mention will 
be given. First, a visit to the capital city under 
most pleasing circumstances ; second, a great sor- 
row that first came into her life. Of the visit to 
Atlanta, a former pupil and teacher of Wesleyan 
had become an officer in the Woman's Home 
Mission Society, whose Board was in session in 
that city. 

A favorite tree on the college campus, the mock 
orange, which was the early spring bride of all 
the garden, had been destroyed ; but enough of its 
fiber had been preserved to make a mallet or gav- 
el. This had been beautifully wrought, and, with 
loving greetings from Wesleyan, was presented 
by May Kenny to this body. At this meeting 
May's vision was not only enlarged but intensi- 
fied; so she saw that her own home needed 
workers. Were the foreigners really coming to 
our country a million a year, and no Christian 
hand to grasp them as they enter our ports? 
Were the Japanese and Chinese here by the 



THE GEORGIA HOME 37 

thousands, and in their Buddhist temples wor- 
shiping heathen gods? Were there children in 
the cities who absolutely lived upon the streets, 
annually furnishing inmates for jails and peni- 
tentiaries from their lives of crime? Are there 
women and girls sold in our own Christian land 
as slaves for men? Are there thousands of 
mountain girls and boys who do not know how 
to read, or that Christ died for them ? Are there 
thousands of unfortunate girls wandering, foot- 
sore and weary, begging for a place to go to 
quit a life of sin or outlive a great misfortune? 
Are there numbers of our ministers receiving 
less than a living, dwelling in tents and dug- 
outs without sufficient clothing to keep them 
warm? 

After a realization of all this need she said: 
"O, who ever knew that there was so much sor- 
row and heartache in our own beautiful land? 
I wish I was a happy child again, playing in the 
yard with little sister, Rex, and Sally. But, list ! 
Is there a difference between trouble abroad and 
trouble at home, sin in the Orient and sin in 
America? I was willing to go abroad to tell 



38 THE MORNING-GLORY 

the story of God's great love; shall I deny them 
at home ?" 

After hearing the call for workers and seeing 
six happy-faced deaconesses consecrated by 
Bishop Hendrix (for the order of deaconess had 
just been created, and these were the first in the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, South), May de- 
cided that she would give herself to the home 
field. So with a pledge in her heart and a pur- 
pose not to be denied, she returned to school to 
finish her course. 

One morning during her last term a teacher 
drew her tenderly aside and said: "May, you 
have always been the joy of our school, but it 
is my sad duty to bring you a great sorrow/' 
She read the message which had been sent in 
her care, fearing that she might be overcome with 
grief if alone : "Come home ; mother fell asleep 
this morning. Maud." The ominous envelope 
of yellow, with its sad, hasty message, had come 
to her as it had to many others, leaving in its 
abrupt way the imprint of a great sorrow, with 
no word of comfort. 

Her face paled, the corners of her mouth drew 
down, her eyes closed, and for a while kind Na- 



THE GEORGIA HOME 39 

ture spared her the consciousness of her great 
sorrow. With difficulty the teacher restored 
her; but she finally rallied, and began at once 
to prepare for her departure. May knew it was 
good-by for all time; for she was needed in 
the home, and no duty was ever shirked when 
she knew it was hers. 

Every one in the college felt a personal loss 
in the going of May, and truly was her sorrow 
theirs. 

With a fortitude and strength undreamed of 
she went through those dark days with a light 
from another world, because of others who 
needed her comfort and courage. Mother had 
sweetly dropped off to sleep to awake in heaven, 
just as she wanted to go, without being a care to 
any one ; and she knew it was well with her. 
Now her father and little sister leaned upon her 
as they had never done before, the brothers now 
men and gone away; and she gently but firmly 
led them through the mists to the clear light of 
resignation and faith in Him who is the Life 
and the Resurrection. 

Three years were thus spent in the home, now 
made sacred by the presence of the angelic spirit 



40 THE MORNING-GLORY 

of mother. Everything was done as mother 
would have done it; and with this sacred in- 
fluence pervading the home, it was a haven of 
rest to all who crossed its threshold. 

The childish love of Elmer and Maud had 
ripened as the years went by; and with his im- 
passioned love and indulged nature, together 
with her love for home, they decided not to 
wait longer but to enter into the state of blessed 
singleness of heart and life. 

Although Aunt Chloe, Sally's mother, shook 
her head and said, "Ah, honey, didn't you never 
heah 'twas bad luck to marry" in May ?" Maud's 
heart sang with the birds, as the last lacy ruffles, 
rolled and whipped, were added to the filmy 
bridal robes, and all was ready for the happy 
event. 

Pity the bride who must wear upon her 
head a mock-orange blossom of wax, linen, or 
cotton, when in the land of the South one can 
be adorned with the flower in its natural 
beauty and fragrance ! No florist was needed 
for this beautiful wedding ; for the home garden 
was lavish in its gifts to the bride, and the house 
was heavy with the odor of jasmine, tuberose, 



THE GEORGIA HOME 41 

and magnolia, while garlands of roses and smi- 
lax made it a bower of beauty. While few wit- 
nessed the ceremony, all the friends came later; 
and no fairer couple ever entered upon the 
matrimonial sea under fairer skies than did 
Maud Kenny and Elmer Joy. 

Only Aunt Chloe, with that superstition born 
of her color, heaved a sigh when the carriage 
bore away the happy couple amidst the shower 
of rice and old shoes, and, talking to herself, she 
said : "Yes, honey ; but it's May, an' didn't we hev 
a shower on her day? I hope she's the 'ception, 
but I never seed it fail yit. Fum whut I seed 
last night I spec' dey'll be anuther weddin' at 
dis house sometime, fer I nebber seed sich 
eyes as dat young Marse George sot on my 
little Missus May; but I does hope dey won't 
marry in de mont' of May. Hard to fool dese 
old eyes when folks is in love, fer ain't I done 
seed it ebber sence Marse Ben mek love to Ole 
Miss, an' on down to dese chilluns' mammy? 
An' den I rec'n I'se had a little love-makin' my- 
self, fer didn't Josiah cote me goin' on two 
year 'fore I ever said yes? I wanted ter see if 
he meant it; an' all dese yeahs Josiah's been 



42 THE MORNING-GLORY 

mighty good ter me. You see, we married 
Cris'mus." 

While much of the superstition of the black 
mammy we count due to ignorance, cannot much 
be attributed to her closeness to nature? Who 
would not rather see the crescent of the moon 
in clear skies than through tree tops or beclouded 
through glass, betokening a month of trouble? 
or who would not prefer to pick up a pin with 
its point toward you, indicating the sharp luck 
of the day, than to have the head foretell its 
dullness? Many childish pleasures are brought 
to naught because we trust not in the wisdom 
of the black mammy of the household when she 
says : "Didn't I tole you Friday is de faires' 
or de foules'?" Bereft will be the South when 
the black mammy lives only in history. The 
only mother who can love as her own the child 
of another race, and sometimes seem to love 
it better, is the black mammy of the South 
in the days that are past. When the crooning 
of her lullabies shall be heard no more, when 
the "honey child" of her warning is forgotten, 
the white race as well as her own will have lost 
a heritage that was both a blessing and a curse 



THE GEORGIA HOME 43 

to our happy land. For her sake shall not the 
stronger help the weaker to cultivate the best 
of their nature and overcome the dark, evil 
passions of their benighted ancestors, leading 
them into the better possibilities of their own 



race 



Mayhap there is more sentiment in sending 
the gospel to darkened Africa, but no less is 
the need of the gospel of fairness and helpful- 
ness to the 8,833,994 negroes in our own home 
land. 




CHAPTER IV 

HOME MISSIONS 
HEN God made man and found it 
was not good for him to be alone, 
he gave him a helpmeet, bone of 
his bone, flesh of his flesh — not from 
his head to be above him, not from his feet to 
be trod upon; but from his side, from near his 
heart, to be loved ; from near his arms, to be pro- 
tected. 

Ever since Miriam, with timbrel in hand, led 
the multitude in a triumphant march, and Deb- 
orah with military tactics overcame Sisera and 
his forces, and gentle Ruth gleaned in the field, 
and Dorcas served as the first deaconess, woman 
has played well her part on the stage of life. 

Realizing the dormant forces of the woman- 
hood of the great Methodist Church, a good 
bishop in conversation with a frail little woman 
who was said to be all heart and brain dropped 
a seed which fell on good ground. When Lu- 
anda B. Helm, of Elizabethtown, Ky., realized 
a great need, soon a great effort was put forth 
(44) 



HOME MISSIONS 45 

to meet that need; and when, in 1885, Bishop 
Hargrove's heart was melted to pity for the 
sufferings of his fellow-workers in the West 
and in the mountain fastnesses, she organized 
the Woman's Department of Church Extension 
the following year. 

Should the queen of the home in one section 
of the country sit in comfort and ease while her 
sister in another was living in dugouts and 
tents as her husband preached the word? To 
establish Churches homes must be built for 
those working on the frontier ; so the organiza- 
tion became the Woman's Parsonage and Home 
Mission Society, with its main purpose the 
building of homes for preachers in places where 
no shelter could be had. In 1898 it took the 
name of the Woman's Home Mission Society, 
retaining, however, the work of building par- 
sonages, although dropping the name. 

Not all heroes have received the praise due 
them; and not until the last day of assize will 
it be known that many heralds of the gospel have 
been the world's greatest heroes. Years were 
spent in suffering and privation; and when it 



46 THE MORNING-GLORY 

was known that relief could be had, with what 
timidity came the plea! 

For with home-building it soon became 
known that supplies were needed. Could not 
our Father in tender pity supply the needs of 
his children in the planting of his word? We 
know he has power to send a convoy of angels 
to relieve every need, but it is not his plan. He 
looks to us to do that work, and shall we dis- 
appoint him. He has no other plan. Brother 
A in a Western town needs a coat, and "he 
has a cough." Illness has made it necessary 
for Brother B's children to be clothed; a fire 
swept away all the household goods of Brother 
C; a drought has made it necessary for 
Brother D to ask for help; orphanages need 
clothing; homeless girls with no change of gar- 
ments must be rescued. Thus the Supply De- 
partment was born of a great need, and a great 
purpose has it served. 

Early was it seen that prevention is better 
than cure ; and education became an important 
branch, with schools for the foreigners, the 
mountain whites, the kindergarten for the city's 
poor, the city mission work, and, best of all, 



HOME MISSIONS 47 

the trained worker, the order of deaconess with 
the somber garb for protection and the city mis- 
sionary being the capstone to this house beau- 
tiful or the flowering fruit of the Home Mis- 
sion tree. 

Thus we see that from the tiny seed which 
sprang up in the heart of Lucinda B. Helm has 
grown a mighty tree of wondrous beauty whose 
leaves are for the healing of the nations. 

Assuming entire control of the order of the 
deaconess, the Home Mission Society soon 
realized its great responsibility. The call went 
forth, and we have seen how at the Atlanta 
meeting the heart of May Kenny was touched 
and she became a candidate for training. No 
more perfect life was ever given to serve its 
Maker than hers, for she verified the words of 
a favorite pastor who said : "It is not so much 
the amount consecrated that God cares most 
about, but the completeness of the consecration. " 
She realized that hers was a little life to give, 
the thread of which was apt to snap at any 
time ; but in her years of training at the Scarritt 
Bible and Training School no life ever left a 
sweeter memory or more hallowed influence 



48 THE MORNING-GLORY 

than hers, so completely consecrated to the serv- 
ice of her Lord. Consecrated by our good 
Bishop Ward, she awaited a definite call to 
service. 

At the Board meeting in Houston, Tex., a 
rugged preacher from Arkansas made his way 
to the altar, pleading for a hearing, which was 
granted. "Madam President," said the preacher, 
"I represent the Lord Jesus and the Floss 
Lumber Company, one of the largest interests 
in the United States, which in coming into its 
possessions finds that it needs the holy influence 
of a deaconess. I implore you to grant this re- 
quest, for the need is great." 

"Mr. Goodman," said the President, "I wish 
we had one to send you ; but the large cities are 
calling, and there are not one-tenth enough to 
answer the calls. As soon as we can we shall 
grant your request." 

With the fire of one who is awake to the need, 
and with a fervor in his voice that brooked no 
denial, he said: "Yes, I know these other places 
need them; but I have come for a deaconess, 
and I must have one." Then as he told how 
men and boys were in sin and ignorance, how 



HOME MISSIONS 49 

the women of the camp needed help and in- 
struction to make better homes, how that he and 
his good wife had prayed, believing, and that he 
must have the promise of a deaconess before 
he left this meeting, somehow all other appeals 
were forgotten, and only Floss and her suffer- 
ing people needed help. 

With the thought all along that May Kenny 
would do a great work here, the President, 
with the approval of the Board, assigned May 
Kenny to the mill town of Floss, in Southern 
Arkansas. 

We have seen her introduction into' this buried 
city where men and women were dead in tres- 
passes and sin, and whose gentle hand was to 
roll the stone away from its stenching sepul- 
cher. 

Losing no time in longing for a more pleas- 
ant work, May Kenny entered at once upon the 
duties that lay before her, the first being the 
brightening of the home and life of Mrs. Bright. 
With her deft fingers she soon righted the con- 
fused household, the shambling appearance soon 
taking on one of care and painstaking. The 
hardest thing to break was the blue hen from lay- 
4 



50 THE MORNING-GLORY 

ing on her dresser, for that was the only living 
thing that had survived her wanderings since 
she had left "Missippi," her babies being buried 
all along the way, she having married Jim 
Bright after crossing the Arkansas line. So 
Lady, the blue hen, was the pet of the house- 
hold ; and wherever she wanted to lay Mrs. 
Bright left her in undisturbed quietude. But 
when Miss Kenny took so much interest in 
Lady and fixed her a nice nest by the wood 
shed, Mrs. Bright was consoled and made no 
further protest. 

Learning a beautiful lesson from the "flower 
woman of Atlanta/' she always carried little 
packages of flower seeds and scattered them 
along the way, till soon every bare place in 
Floss was springing with vines and flowers. 
Jim Bright would have nothing but morning- 
glories, and soon the whole camp of Floss was 
made beautiful by their trailing vines and beau- 
tiful blossoms. 

Then, too, Jim Bright felt impelled to muster 
all of the best in his 225 pounds of manhood; 
and a man he was, in the presence of the Morn- 
ing-Glory of Floss. Only once, when she went' 



HOME MISSIONS 51 

to a great gathering by the sea, did he fall; for 
somehow he felt that he had no prop, and yielded 
to the tempter and was lost again. The vine and 
the support had changed places. He, the strong, 
was leaning upon the weaker, and fell when no 
Morning-Glory graced his home. On her return 
her great grief touched the mainspring of his 
heart, and he promised he would never touch 
liquor again; for he had caught the meaning 
that grief can come only from love — and surely 
she loved the people of Floss, or she would not 
have given her life for them. 

Every day the little figure in black would be 
seen going here and there, telling Mrs. Jones 
how to make good corn bread like Aunt Chloe 
used to make, or Mrs. Brown a good remedy 
for croup, suggesting at the same time that 
the sun was lovely for the bedding to-day, al- 
ways leaving an influence like a breath of 
heaven blown into their humble abodes. 

The day was long for Lame Tim when he 
did not have a sight of the deaconess, for some 
little token marked every visit she made — 
cookies to-day, pictures yesterday, a story to- 
morrow, or a beautiful bunch of flowers. Tim 



52 THE MORNING-GLORY 

would not mind being lame if only he could be 
with the deaconess always; but there were other 
troubled hearts for May to comfort, and she 
must hurry away. 

She soon saw that much of the trouble among 
the men was for want of amusement after the 
mill closed; but to her preparation must come 
before pleasure, so a night school was opened, 
that those men and boys who had no early ad- 
vantages could now be taught. A car was 
ordered built, and soon a night school was work- 
ing wonders in the mill town of Floss. 

Although Gray Torson had been invited sev- 
eral times, the night school had been going on 
some weeks before he timidly entered, when it 
was found that he was ashamed he could not 
read. Many times had he been overwhelmed 
with the shame of not knowing how to read and 
write his name, and that the vast store of knowl- 
edge from the printed page was hidden from 
him. Regret is born too late, and henceforth he 
must go through the world ignorant and un- 
informed; but now that an opportunity is be- 
fore him to learn, must he acknowledge that 
he cannot read? After seeing the happy faces 



HOME MISSIONS 53 

of his fellow-workmen and feeling the kindly 
touch of the deaconess, the barriers of pride 
gave way, and he began as a little child to 
know the mysteries of the printed page. 

Realizing his timidity, Miss Kenny was es- 
pecially kind to Gray ; and with extra effort 
he soon read in the red-edged Testament she 
gave him: "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto 
one of the least of these, ... ye have done 
it unto me." Surely Gray Torson was one of 
the least of His, but he needed help. Shall we 
question when we know the need? 

In May Kenny's service among the people of 
Floss she was no respecter of persons, but gave 
herself wherever needed; and if discourage- 
ments ever came to her heart, no one ever knew 
it. Was she not in the service of the King, and 
a representative of a great organization whose 
thousands of members were the Aarons and the 
Hurs to hold up her hands ? Was not the Home 
Mission Society doing more than she ever hoped 
to do — aiding the great foreign mission cause 
by Christianizing America that the light may 
radiate afar in the pure white life of Christ, and 
by sending to other lands their own people re- 



54 THE MORNING-GLORY 

generated, thereby making efficient missionaries 
in their own country? She was ever proud of 
her credentials from the Home Mission Society 
and the cause she espoused, feeling the true 
meaning of the words, "Whosoever therefore 
shall be ashamed of me and of my words, 
. . . of him shall the Son of man be 
ashamed." 

From the roughest employee to the most cul- 
tured member of the company all deference 
was paid the little deaconess, and she was always 
received as a child of the King. When she was 
near, a radiance of purity and sweetness per- 
vaded the atmosphere that made it hallowed 
for all. 

One day when she sat at some work in prepa- 
ration for the holidays (for it was nearing the 
Christmastide, and hands must be very busy 
to keep away a little tug at her heart when she 
thought of father and little sister and the happy 
times they used to have together), a messenger 
came running to her and said : "O, Miss Kenny, 
Bill Bimes has been cut at the mill, and wants 
you to come quick!" 

She hastily put her work down, it being little 



HOME MISSIONS 55 

gifts for the children of the Sunday school, and 
almost ran to the tent where they had taken 
Bill, and there found the poor fellow with 
ghastly pale face and blood-soaked garments. 
She was a great help to Dr. Chappell, and was 
more than repaid in that one instance for all 
her study and practice in the Training School. 

It was soon seen, however, that Bill Bimes 
had received his deathblow from the danger 
point of the mill, and all they could do was to 
make his last/ hours comfortable. After he was 
washed and the wound dressed he said: 
"Doc, there's plenty comin' to me from the mill 
to pay you for this; you may go, but let the 
little woman stay a bit." 

"All right, Bill. Let me know if you want 
me again. Good-by, Bill." 

Bill said: "Miss, I ain't no baby, and I know 
I got my summons, and I jes' want to talk to 
ye a little. Ever sence the fust time I seed ye 
I thought ye was an angel, only ye alius wear 
black. I know I ain't been whut I orter been, 
but maybe I ain't all to blame. I wasn't so bad 
when I was young, and I loved a purty girl, 
and we had it all made up to marry and I'd saved 



56 THE MORNING-GLORY 

enough to start housekeepin' in jes' one room; 
but lots of folks don't start much better." Grit- 
ting his teeth to bear the pain that was cutting 
short the moments of his life, he drew in a good 
breath and resumed : ''Everything was fixed and 
I walked over to her house with the license in 
my pocket, the happiest boy you ever seed-; for 
she had the purtiest black eyes as ever sot in 
a woman's head. The preacher was to meet 
us there, and I jes' walked on air. But when 
I got to the house everything seemed so quiet- 
like I didn't know whut to think; so I went in 
kinder skeered like, and her brother met me and 
said : 'Bill, sis is done married that feller whut 
come down here from Perryville last week sellin' 
lightnin' rods. She's jes' been gone about a 
hour, an' I hoped ye'd hear it 'fore ye got here. 
Tell ye I'm sorry, fer I don't like his looks.' ' : 
After an awful paroxysm which left his voice 
more guttural than before, Bill went on, the 
little woman, as he preferred to call her, gently 
raising his hair from his clammy brow and 
wiping it with her handkerchief. "I jes' looked 
into a great big blank spot and saw nothin' nor 
nobodv, and turned around and walked off. I 



HOME MISSIONS 57 

didn't go back home nor to the little house in 
the clump of trees, but tried to get as far away 
from everybody as I could. I swapped my good 
clo'es for some work clo'es and a little money to 
boot, and got on a raft and floated down the 
Miss'ippi River as fur as Helena. I had worked 
some in timber, and I heard as how in Arkansas 
there was lots of timber and mills, so I've 
worked myself this fur, first clearin' a road and 
on up to my place in the mill. Never sence that 
day when Lucy fooled me have I believed in 
woman till I seed you at Jim Bright's the night 
me and Josh Strong tuk up your trunk. I've 
never even eat after a woman sence then; done 
my own washin' and cookin' and patchin' — every- 
thing to show that Bill Bimes can live without 
her — and all the talk about women bein' better'n 
men had no effect on me. 'Tain't no use sayin' 
I've had a hard time and ain't alius enjoyed livin' 
like a beast; but not till I seed you did I ever 
think there was a honest woman on earth. Now 
I'm a-dyin', and I don't want to die like a dog;" 
and with a pitiful, pleading look in his glassy 
eyes he said: "Can ye do anything to help a 
feller like me?" 



58 THE MORNING-GLORY 

"O, my friend/' she said (for "Mr. Bimes" 
didn't suit Bill), "I can't do much now; but I 
can tell you of One who can help you now and 
has wanted to help you all these years, but you 
wouldn't let him. Did you never ask the Friend 
who knows all sorrows and is acquainted with 
grief to help you? Jesus knows all about your 
troubles and is so loving and kind and wants 
to save you now. Do you believe He can and 
will?" 

"Ef you say so, I do; but I ain't fitten now to 
be saved." 

"He will make that all right if you are sorry." 

With tears streaming down his face he said, 
"Well, maybe Lucy has been sorry, and didn't 
know how bad it was to run off and leave a 
poor feller like me ;" and, weeping and sobbing 
like a child, he added: "Have mercy on me a 
wicked sinner." 

Thus as a little child, and saved by grace, 
Bill Bimes was snatched into the kingdom as 
a "brand from the burning," and out shot a 
brilliant star in the heavens to shine in the 
crown of the "angel who wore black." "They 
that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the 



HOME MISSIONS 59 

firmament; and they that turn many to right- 
eousness as the stars forever and ever." 

Bill Bimes was given a Christian burial, and 
many hearts were touched at the tenderness the 
little deaconess showed in the passing of this 
rough man of the mill. 

In looking over his few belongings she saw on 
the fly leaf of an old book "Sarah Bimes, — , Wis- 
consin." She wrote to this address, telling of 
his triumphant entry into the kingdom, and in 
a few weeks received a letter telling how all 
these years they had tried to find him; and 
that poor Lucy was heart-broken and returned 
home in a few weeks, hoping to find him. How 
pitiful was her grief and the longing anxiety 
for his return ! It was all right now, since he 
had forgiven her and she would soon meet him ; 
for she, too, had been forgiven by the One who 
was "very pitiful and of tender mercy," and 
this answer to her daily prayer had soothed her 
restless spirit. "In the game of hearts they 
often fall and break betimes." 

No one knew that in May Kenny's tender- 
ness to this lonely man her mind had sought 
her only love, George Gaylor, wondering if she, 



60 THE MORNING-GLORY 

too, had made a mistake in heeding not the love 
of a strong, manly heart. But the One for 
whom she had made this sacrifice also com- 
forted her with the words : "Whosoever shall 
lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the 
same shall save it." 




CHAPTER V 

THE AWAKENING 

| HEN the officers of the Floss Lum- 
ber Company met in annual ses- 
sion next morning, it was evident 
that each heart was full of pain 
from the realization of the slaughter of their 
men at the danger point where Bill Bimes had 
lost his life, but they could devise no plan to 
remedy it. 

A giant negro, six feet four and strong in 
sinew, appeared and asked for the place, which 
they readily gave him. When asked his name 
he said: "Jes' put down 'Nigger' — that's whut 
everybody calls me, 'cause granny alius called 
me that. You see I come from down about 
the Niger River, and they jes' got to callin' 
me 'Nigger ;' it'll be all right." And, spreading 
his big mouth, he showed two rows of whitest 
ivory any king might covet. 

Nigger handled the logs as no other man 
had ever done, and with unusual watchfulness 
escaped many accidents, finally leaving his post, 

(61) 



62 THE MORNING-GLORY 

after the invention of a piece of machinery to 
take his place, with the loss of only two fingers 
to mark his five months' service. 

At that morning's consultation the members 
of the company decided that better things 
should come of their small beginning there. 
Vast timber reserves were about them, the cli- 
mate was good, and since the coming of the 
deaconess the people seemed to have higher 
aspirations, and were not altogether mere 
''hewers of wood and drawers of water." New 
life seemed to have crept into the camp. Why 
not have a town and live on higher ground? 
In other words, the mill town of Floss had 
awakened. 

Looking out of the window, Mr. Gatewell 
saw Miss Kenny on her round of mercy among 
the people of the camp, and said to the mem- 
bers: "That little woman has done more for the 
people of Floss in making them see themselves 
than we ever could. Let's have her in consul- 
tation; maybe she can help us." 

Calling her in and stating their plans, she 
was delighted to aid by offering suggestions as 
to making it a model town. Places of amusement 



THE AWAKENING 63 

must be had as well as churches ; and each one, 
filled to the brim with enthusiasm, suggested 
plans by which a splendid town could be built. 

May Kenny did not sleep much that night; 
for new visions arose in her mind of a city beau- 
tiful in which she could have a part in found- 
ing, the superstructure of which she could 
view from the heights of the city of God. 

New mills were installed, lumber could not 
be sawed fast enough to put up houses, and 
every week brought new inhabitants; for every 
new enterprise demanded new employees. The 
ringing of the hammer and the song of the 
saw filled the air with a busy sound that told 
the world a new town was being born, a town 
which should be on the maps that mark the 
outlines of the continents and their posses- 
sions. 

As in character, so in towns. We should 
build well; and not alone for to-day, but for 
to-morrow. The forces of the evil one are 
always awake; and one day the members of 
the company were startled to hear that a sa- 
loon was coming into their midst, the license 
having already been applied for. At once they 



64 THE MORNING-GLORY 

started a church, and sent Brother Kromer on 
a hasty ride to the county seat to enter pro- 
test. When he arrived and told his mission the 
clerk said: "But you have no church, and the 
law does not hinder." 

"But," said Mr. Kromer taking out his 
watch, "the church is just finished. It was to 
be completed at four o'clock, and it is now ten 
minutes past four. I protest, and appeal to 
the law to protect us." 

Thus was the only attempted saloon kept out 
of Floss. But when men want liquor they get 
it, if on an island in mid-ocean or on a flat rock 
in the deep of the woods ; so the camp was not 
free from this blighting curse for a long time. 

The wonderful age of the city is upon us 
when in a night they spring forth with a hab- 
itation of thousands of busy men and women. 
In a few days electric lights are sparkling in 
the streets, water flows through pipes for the 
convenience of the people, handsome buildings 
go up like magic, and in a marvelously short 
time paved streets invite the automobile and 
other delightful pleasures. 

Oklahoma, the new world of the century, is 



THE AWAKENING 65 

an example of this speedy civilization. Less 
than two decades ago it was the home of the 
wandering red man, the coyote, and the prairie 
dog; to-day it is the wonder of the nation. 

So the little town of Floss grew rapidly, and 
added unto itself the improvements of the age 
for the comfort and convenience of her people 
— electric lights, waterworks, laundry, bakery, 
clubhouses for the wholesome pleasures of the 
people, with gymnasium, natatorium, library, 
reception halls, auditorium — and every good 
thing possible was done for the employees of 
the mill. 

Much credit is due the senior member of the 
company, who responded liberally to every call, 
and every year left his Wisconsin home to 
spend some time studying the conditions at 
Floss and trying always to better them. 

Unlike other mill towns or factory settle- 
ments, no two houses were alike except in their 
whiteness, some differing in size, architecture, 
or porches, which were liberal for the Southern 
climate ; and only the gate fastenings betrayed 
the fact that the whole town belonged to the 
company. 
5 



66 THE MORNING-GLORY 

After five months of this formative period in 
the history of Floss, we see that the outer 
world has awakened too; and a new railroad 
has pushed its way through the woods and 
taken in its course the town now dotted with 
houses instead of the tented city of earlier 
days. 

Many changes had taken place in that time, 
Miss Kenny long since having "divided her 
time" with Mrs. Wilkins, but never forgetting 
her kind reception into the home of Mrs. 
Bright. The itinerant wheel of Methodism had 
in its annual rotation given the people a new 
preacher, and with many sad good-byes dear 
Brother Goodman bade his people adieu. No 
mill town ever had better friends and helpers 
than Brother Goodman and his wife, and many 
were the misgivings lest the bachelor preacher 
might not be as tender as the one they had 
given up. But, whatever else may be lacking in 
the make-up of a Methodist preacher, tenderness 
of heart is ever present; and this preacher-man 
seemed especially gentle and loving in his min- 
istration to his new flock. 

Soon Brother Deland was as much in the 



THE AWAKENING 67 

hearts 01 his people as if this were his fourth 
year instead of his first. 

One morning early in May as the little dea- 
coness was making her usual visit to Mrs. 
Bright, finding her on the front porch in 
the shade of a beautiful vine just covered with 
morning-glories, capping the first strawberries 
she had" found in her patch and throwing the 
caps at the edge of the porch with the bits 
of broken eggshells which already graced the 
spot, she said: ''Have you heerd Mis' Regent 
come home on the Nine last night? I'd begun 
to think this camp — O, I do fergit we are a 
town now — never would see her any more. 
You see her man he died jes' 'fore this camp 
was opened, and she had to come here to see 
about his affairs (for he was one of the com- 
pany, you know) ; and a powerful nice woman 
she is. It was jes' like havin' a missionary when 
she was here; but she grieved so over her hus- 
ban' she had to do somethin'. She never could 
get the consent of her mind to come back till 
she had some good news for the camp. I do 
declare I can't git used to sayin' town. But I 
done been over to see her, an' she tells me 



68 THE MORNING-GLORY 

she's got a new invention. I don't know whut 
'tis, but it's somethin' about the mill to keep 
so many from gettin' hurt." 

"I am so glad," said the deaconess — for she 
remembered the suffering of poor Bill Bimes — 
"and I hope the Floss Lumber Company will 
never lose another man by such an accident. 
I must meet Mrs. Regent soon." And after 
a few cheery words and inquiring how Lady 
was these days and if she still liked the new 
nest, she hurried on her way. 

A new and larger church now stood where 
the little one first served to drive the evil one 
away, and soon it was found inadequate and 
that other rooms must be added. 

May Kenny's latest hope was the organiza- 
tion of a Baraca Class ; and it may well be said 
no better work was done in her life at Floss 
than that among the men of the mill. Old 
men who had long since drifted from God out 
into a life of sin, young men, many away from 
home and needing a friend to help them when 
temptations almost swept them from their feet, 
boys who were impatient to enter the untried 
paths of manhood — she was ever their friend to 



THE AWAKENING 69 

help them stem a tide which was about to carry 
them over a precipice into the abyss below. 

At last, by that sweet, gentle force that was 
ever dominant in her character, she led them 
into that higher sphere of doing for others ; and 
no happier heart ever fluttered in the breast of 
a human being than hers, when, on the first 
Sunday in May, eighteen stalwart men and boys 
met her in the pastor's study and became a link 
in the chain that is now belting the world with 
its helpful mission, whose motto is, "We do 
things," known as the Baraca Class for young 
men. Not a boy but could have picked her up 
and carried her out of the room, so small she 
seemed ; yet with eager interest and appreci- 
ation they listened to her every word, and from 
that room came many helpful and instructive 
lessons which lingered in their hearts forever. 

Had she but seen them once a week, not so 
much could have been accomplished; but every 
boy in that class knew that May Kenny was 
his friend. Xot a day passed but she showed 
she thought of them in some way. 

Did Joe Duncan receive a message that his 
mother was dying, only Miss Kenny could com- 



70 THE MORNING-GLORY 

fort his sad heart; or did any new joy come 
into the life of any boy, it was not fully appre- 
ciated till Miss Kenny could rejoice with 
him. Thus did a bond of fellowship spring 
up about teacher and pupil, till in their hearts 
blossomed a friendship beautiful and strong 
whose fragrance should last to eternity. 

"Friendship above all does bind the heart, 
And faith in friendship is the nobler part." 

What boy cannot be better or do better work 
if he knows he has some friend who is count- 
ing on him, some friend to encourage him, some 
friend to help him? Pity the boy who is away 
from home and without a friend; and yet there 
are thirteen and a half millions every year 
sinking into sin and away from God for the 
want of friends. What are we doing to save 
these boys? Sleeping or sitting at ease in our 
homes, while they go trooping by on the down- 
ward path with no friendly hand to help them 
up again. May Kenny was a friend to boys; 
pity we haven't more. 

The invention which Mrs. Regent brought as 
good news to the mill was quickly named the 



THE AWAKENING 71 

"steel nigger," as it displaced Nigger and did the 
work of loading and adjusting the logs on the 
carriage after they were snaked up from the 
lake, and quickly hurled them to the first saw 
for squaring. The great danger came from 
handling the big logs and the speed in carrying 
them to the saw, which often swept the 
workman into the teeth of the saw before he 
could free himself. 

After it was well adjusted, Mrs. Regent, Miss 
Kenny, and the preacher-man — for they were all 
good friends — were watching it work almost as 
if it had hands, feet, and brain besides, for of 
course it was manipulated by a wise hand 
near by. When a big log came into place from 
its journey up the slant, all dripping with the 
water into which it had been thrown from the 
car just before, old "steel nigger" seemed to 
size him up, and, opening his strong clutches, 
grasped it and threw it well onto the car which 
hurried it away to the saw. After watching this 
interesting scene for some time, each one felt 
that man had infused into the iron and steel 
of this piece of machinery his own brain and 
power, so perfectly did it do the work of a 



72 THE MORNING-GLORY 

living being; when suddenly it jerked, it tugged, 
it rose and fell, yet it could not extricate nor 
adjust the log now before it. Things were 
getting terribly mixed. The "steel nigger" was 
baffled, the mill stopped, the foreman came and 
men were called from other parts of the mill to 
take out the log that had caused the trouble, all 
on account of a measly little old log that would 
not make two good planks. 

"Ah," said the preacher, "it is in life as we 
see it with the 'steel nigger' — a big, broad- 
minded fellow quickly adjusts himself to the 
affairs and circumstances of life, while the 
small, narrow-minded one is the kind that 
causes the trouble. O that we had all big- 
hearted, broad-minded people in the world! 
What a happy place this would be!" 

"Then," said the little deaconess, "you would 
soon have weaklings of us all, when we'd have 
nothing to fight. Untried soldiers are not de- 
serving much, for glory and victory await only 
those who are in the battle." She spoke warm- 
ly; for in her breast a battle waged always — 
she who always seemed so happy, cheerful, and 
satisfied — and the battle was with life itself. Full 



THE AWAKENING 73 

well she knew the weakness of her life-giving 
artery, and that at any time it might refuse to 
serve her and she would lay down her arms 
and work no more. But she wanted to live 
and serve, to do something every day for some 
one. 

Many of us do something for others some- 
times, and it is like a bit of sandalwood that 
breathes its sweet perfume days after it has 
been fashioned into shapely beauty; but few do 
the kind deeds every day. How true the words : 

"It isn't the thing we do, dear; 
It's the thing we leave undone 
Which gives a bit of heartache 
At the setting of the sun." 

But never a day slipped through the life of 
May Kenny without a kindness done to some 
one ; and she who loved to live for others must 
learn the lesson of the will of the Father. 
Whether to serve and thereby bless mankind 
with her loving ministrations, or just to lie down 
and rest, were the enemies that daily battled 
in her heart, each day a little nearer the war- 
fare's end, each day more victorious than the 
last; and when morning came, the glory of 



74 THE MORNING-GLORY 

the night seemed to shine in her face. Thus 
rightly was she named the Morning-Glory. 

She saw beauty in everything, and was a 
lover of nature through nature's God. When 
passing through the wood, she saw every beauti- 
ful tree and heard the chirp of every bird. 
When the maple had caught enough amber of 
the sun's rays within itself to make every leaf 
glimmer and glow with a yellow sheen, which 
in a few days would be burnt into a fiery red, 
she felt that it was her blessed privilege to see 
that thing of beauty. If a mocking bird sang, she 
appreciated it as if the bird had flown across 
the continent to sing the song for her. The 
flowers had a message more delicate than 
human tongue could tell, and she called them 
her "angels of the grass," which whispered ever 
of the flower land where it is always morning 
and where glory gleams for all. 

In. Mrs. Regent's new home a cozy little room 
was built for May Kenny, but not a word was 
said till all was finished and furnished and she 
was invited to spend the night. Her trunk and 
other belongings had been secretly moved while 
she was out, and when Mrs. Regent opened the 



THE AWAKENING 75 

door of her room she said: "Little one" — for 
so she liked to call her — "this is yours for all 
time, and this is home now." 

Could it be true? Was this homelike room 
to be hers and her congenial friend now her 
companion ? Tears filled her eyes, but with that 
sweet smile overspreading her face she said: 
"What is better than a friend? You are too 
good to me, maybe ; but O the joy" you have 
given me to-night ! How I have wanted to be 
one of your household, to feel your strength 
and help, to have a cheery place to rest! O, 
you don't know how glad I am !" She went to 
the large fireplace where burned a cheery fire — 
for the first chill of the autumn eve was felt — 
and there she stooped and said: "O, the old 
fireplace at home — how did you know it was 
like this? How many happy days little sister 
and I spent by the fireside with mother ! He 
who misses the glow of the family fireside loses 
a heritage not all the world can give — a place to 
dream, a place to think, a place to build cas- 
tles and paint pictures, a place to feel the 
warmth that comes from the glowing embers 
and the warmth of love from those encircled 



76 THE MORNING-GLORY 

about like the love from the One above. O the 
fireside hearth, where we tell our stories and 
strengthen each day the bond that unites us 
into a happy family!" Coming to herself, as it 
were, she spied her trunk. "That is why Mrs. 
Wilkins would have me come by her house so 
early, before I came here. You are all so good 
to me," she said. She noticed with pleasure the 
comfortable chairs, the roomy closet, the cozy 
corner, the beautiful bed and mahogany fur- 
niture, the soft, warm rug, the pure-white 
woodwork, and the light green wall paper; but 
as her eyes went up above the wainscot line 
they lighted in pleasurable surprise, for she saw 
in graceful festoons and beautiful colors a 
roomful of morning-glories ! "O Mrs. Regent, 
did you know Mr. Bright calls me 'Morning- 
Glory?'" 

"No, I didn't. But when I saw you I thought 
you reminded me so much of that dainty little 
flower, I said to Brother Deland when we 
planned this surprise for you: 'I'm going to 
paper her room in morning-glories/ You 
surely are one." 

That was truly the happiest night she had 



THE AWAKENING 77 

ever spent in the mill town of Floss; for the 
next day a shadow crossed her path no larger 
than a man's hand at first, but a shadow that 
was to grow and deepen instead of being lost 
in the glow of happiness. This shadow was 
from her other self ; for although no one told 
her, somehow she felt, somehow she knew that 
a sorrow was creeping into her little sister's life 
which would also becloud hers. 

Always cheerful in her letters, Maud could 
not conceal from her devoted sister the fact that 
life was not all she had pictured under the mag- 
nolia that day when they played with Rex and 
Sally. As long as May felt that little sister 
was happy she was content to spend her life for 
others ; but when she felt, more from a high- 
born intuitive power (or perhaps from that com- 
munion of kindred spirits so perfectly attuned 
that, like wireless telegraphy, heart messages 
may be sped across the intervening space which 
no one knew but May and her other self) that 
a cloud had appeared in the blue of her sister's 
sky, then did she want to "flee as a bird'' to little 
sister to soothe her troubled spirit. Her other 
love she controlled with a masterful spirit; and 



78 THE MORNING-GLORY 

none knew that, deep in her heart, there was 
another love consuming in its fire the strength 
she needed for this sorrow. 

As the days went by she tried to console 
herself that maybe she was wrong and that all 
was well; but ever the feeling and the fear that 
would not go away bore upon her day after 
day. However much she suffered in her anx- 
iety about her loved ones, no one ever knew it ; 
her smile as she passed was like a glint of sun- 
light that left only light and not shadow. 

Thus we leave the mill town of Floss, trans- 
formed from a small, rough camp where but 
the sturdiest sons of toil could be induced to 
stay, to an attractive town with the improve- 
ments of a twentieth century city, claiming 
among its inhabitants almost all the members of 
the company, with their families, and the best 
men of the country as employees of trust; 
among whom are found bankers, teachers, 
merchants, foremen of the many places of im- 
portance in mill work, and all classes of men 
and women that go to make up a live town 
to-day. 

Truly were the people of Floss awake. 




CHAPTER VI 

THE HEALING SPRINGS 

|HEN Tob More, night watchman 
at the mill, was stricken with rheu- 
matism, after months of suffering 
with no relief, Dr. Chappell recom- 
mended the baths at Hot Springs as a last resort, 
knowing that it was beyond his power to cure 
him, and hoping that the virtue of the far-famed 
thermal springs would prove beneficial to the 
drawn and suffering man. With much pain he 
was carried to the train, and on a stretcher made 
the tiresome journey of half a clay, each move- 
ment of the train racking his body with pain. 

In advance let us for a moment look at the 
place which is now a Mecca for thousands of 
visitors each year not only from Arkansas, 
but from every State in the Union, some on 
pleasure bent, but many by suffering sent. With 
one exception the cities and towns of Arkansas 
are but centers of commerce, where in some un- 
accountable way men and women seek com- 
panionship as water seeks its level, that ex- 

(79) 



80 THE MORNING-GLORY 

ception being Hot Springs. This city of heal- 
ing waters, cosmopolitan and belonging to all 
people in the government reserves, is yet a child 
of Arkansas and her citizenship. 

With the finger of loving-kindness and tender 
compassion the kind, good Father touched the 
thermal waters, and healing abounds for the 
thousands who seek it every year. 

In an early day the Indian path, the cattle 
trail, and later the wagon road, all led to a 
spring which was found to possess great heal- 
ing power when used in its natural heat; and 
as civilization traveled westward, soon houses 
marked a town for which no better name could 
be found than Hot Springs. 

Once a man in a distant town lay suf- 
fering for ten long years with rheumatism, 
when as a breath of hope came the news of the 
Hot Springs of Arkansas and their power to 
cure. Like the impotent man at the Gate 
Beautiful, he had the desire to be healed and 
availed himself of the opportunity. So great 
was his appreciation of the benefits he received 
that he determined to let others know of this 
boon to the nation. Letters, newspapers, and 



THE HEALING SPRINGS 81 

advertisements flooded the country till, in an 
incredibly short time, a "city that needeth not to 
be ashamed" was set like a gem in the heart 
of the Ozarks. Beautiful for situation and 
shielded from rude blasts on every side by the 
everlasting hills, with a sunny Southern clime 
for the delight of her winter guests and cooling 
breezes for her friends of the South, she sits 
amid the perfume of her flowers and the music 
of her waters, the Queen of the Ozarks. Her 
million-and-a-half-dollar hostelries and the cheap 
rooming houses of the alley afford comfort for 
the millionaire and the pauper, who, either from 
suffering or from sin, find the same relief in 
the life-giving waters from her bubbling springs, 
forty-six or more, varying in temperature from 
125 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, bursting from the 
mountain side of the United States Reservation. 
What though they be heated with never-ending 
fires, electricity, or radium? Is not God's hand 
in the touch of the water to-day as when Naa- 
man dipped seven times in the River Jordan 
for the healing of the leprous spots? It is no 
less a miracle to-day if God-given means are 
used and healing results follow our efforts. 



82 THE MORNING-GLORY 

Then should the healed man leap and praise 
God, as did the impotent of old. 

No fairer city is found than this valley city 
of "vapors, virgins, and virtues" picturesquely 
hid among the mountains, telling the world in 
its healing streams that God is merciful and 
kind. When Tob More was lifted by kind 
hands into the cool and attractive station of 
this Carlsbad of America, a woman in black 
with white tie strings and turnover collar and 
cuffs came up to him and in gentle tones said: 
"You are Mr. More, of Floss? Miss Kenny, 
your deaconess, wrote me you would be on this 
train, and I thought I would come to see if I 
could help you in any way." 

"Ah," said he, "she is always thinking about 
somebody, and doing just the thing to help 
them. I've lost the address of the boarding 
house where I was going, and I am waiting for 
the ambulance to come for me." 

"Maybe you will remember the name if I call 
several over," which she did; and he thanked 
her when the right one fell upon his ear. 

Soon the ambulance bore him away; but the 
deaconess was busy for a long time, helping this 



THE HEALING SPRINGS 83 

one and that one, who were strangers, or dis- 
appointed because no friendly faces met them. 
When she thought the station was cleared, she 
saw a poor fellow who seemed to be hiding lest 
he should be seen. Walking over to him, she 
saw the marks of sin in great sores which told 
all too plainly of the sin-sick soul within. 

"My friend, can I help you?" she said. 

"No, thank you," he said. "The policeman 
will help me as soon as he is free from his 
duties." 

"Good-by," she said kindly. 

After she had gone he asked: "Who was 
that good woman that called me friend?" 

"O, she's our deaconess; and a friend she is, 
too, to many a poor fellow who is down and 
out. You'll see her again," said the police- 
man. 

After two weeks of heroic treatment with 
plunges, hot packs, electricity, and many other 
methods of treatment, Tob More felt new life 
throbbing in his veins ; and from stretcher to 
crutches, from crutches to stick, and after four 
weeks with leaps and bounds he was ready to 
praise the healing waters from the mountain top. 



84 THE MORNING-GLORY 

One day when walking on Bath House Row 
he met the deaconess and told her in glowing 
terms of his wonderful restoration and the like- 
ness of her goodness to that of Miss Kenny, 
of Floss. 

"O, thank you," said the deaconess. "I 
knew May Kenny at school ; she was our morn- 
ing-glory." 

"Well, I see morning-glories grow here too." 

As she started away she saw again the poor 
fellow who hid from her that day at the station. 
His skin was smooth and clear, and his face 
betokened good breeding. 

She said: "My good sir, I want you to meet 
one who came in the same day you did, and 
has been so wondrously healed." After intro- 
ducing them she said: "We have prayer meet- 
ing at our church this evening ; won't you 
both come and tell what the Lord has done for 
you ?" 

Tob More quickly said, "Yes ;" but the other, 
faltering, tried to make excuse, till the thought 
of mother came to him and he reflected : "What 
an opportunity to honor mother's God!" 

That evening wonderful experiences were 



THE HEALING SPRINGS 85 

heard in the great stone church on Central and 
Olive Streets, where a great crowd was 
gathered for the midweek prayer meeting. 
The faith of many was strengthened by the 
testimony of grateful hearts and a wanderer 
reconciled by kindness. 

Tob More persuaded his new-found friend to 
return with him to Floss ; and as a vacancy was 
just found in a foreman's office, he became an 
efficient employee of the company. 

Thus are many lost sheep brought into the 
fold by the tender care of the Shepherd. Some 
are weak and fall by the wayside, some wander 
away and are crippled, some are caught un- 
awares by the enemy; but from whatever 
cause the sheep is lost, there is greater joy over 
the one that is found than the ninety and nine 
safe in the fold. 

Are we seeking the lost as the great Shepherd 
would have us do? 




CHAPTER VII 

CRO LEY'S CAMP 

S the mill hungrily devoured the logs 
that came to it in long train loads, 
turning out from seventy to eighty 
million feet of lumber a year, soon 
camps had to be established many miles from the 
town of Floss. 

Of all the camps that were set up in the his- 
tory of Floss, none shows greater contrast to 
the original camp or the spirit of changed con- 
ditions than Croley's Camp. Twenty miles from 
headquarters, in the heart of the deep woods, 
with several hundred men under his control, 
Tom Croley managed them as one big, happy 
family. With the ringing of the ax were the 
happy songs or laughter of the men, showing 
that contentment reigned from honest wage for 
honest toil. 

The houses were called cars, as they were 
made to be moved to another place when this 
spot should be cleared. They were neat and 
(86) 



CRO LEY'S CAMP 87 

comfortable, and the wife in the car showed the 
spirit of the camp ; and although they were there 
but a few weeks, or months perhaps, yet it was 
home ; for there were wife and the children. 

With just enough elevation for a natural 
drainage and situated in a picturesque place in 
the wood, the location for Croley's Camp was 
ideal; chosen, perhaps, because a well of pure 
cold water was found there, a benediction from 
somebody who had dwelt there long enough to 
dig a well which should bless all who would 
follow after him. The gift of a well is a great 
gift indeed. The wayside well has refreshed 
many a weary traveler and sent him on his way 
encouraged. Like the tree planted by one who 
never expected to enjoy its shade or eat of 
its fruit, the roadside well continues to bless 
and refresh the generations long after the 
benefactor has passed away. A beautiful 
monument is the living tree with its fruits 
and flowers, or the gushing water from the heart 
of the earth, both blessing mankind and telling 
the world that a good man has lived, because he 
thought of others. 

Not only for his son Joseph did Jacob dig 



88 THE MORNING-GLORY 

a well in the plains of Samaria; but the gener- 
ations of the centuries have quaffed sweet wa- 
ters from its cooling fountain, and even the 
water of life has been dispensed from its rest- 
ful curb with loving words by the Master him- 
self, who said to the woman of Sychar: "Who- 
soever drinketh of the water that I shall give 
him shall never thirst." 

One day there was quite a stir in the circle 
of Croley's Camp, for a blind man had come on 
the supply train and wanted to work and be 
counted one of the men of the crew. 

"What can a blind man do at a logging camp ?" 
said Tom Croley. "This company needs men 
with all the eyes they can get, and using every 
one of them to good advantage at that." 

But when Tom Croley had talked to the new- 
comer, who was so unfortunate as to almost 
completely lose his sight, his heart melted; 
and that evening when he went to his car 
(although there were four rooms put together 
with a large large hall between, it was still called 
a car, though it made a comfortable home), he 
said: "Wife, we've got a new man in the camp, 
and he's blind. I don't know just yet what he 



CROLEY'S CAMP 89 

will do, but he had a note from Mr. Gatewell 
saying, 'Give this man some work/ He cer- 
tainly is a fine-looking fellow; and while he is 
big enough to handle the biggest logs, he don't 
look like a woodsman. He is blind and not so 
old, but has hair as white as snow ; yet he says he 
wants to work." 

Early next morning — for woodsmen arise with 
the day and add to their natures the freshness 
of the morning and the strength of the forest — 
the blind man was first among the men waiting 
to be listed for the day's work. Already he had 
made friends with one of the water boys — for 
who ever saw a two-hundred-pounder who was 
not always thirsty — and Jo, the water boy, was 
talking to him and keeping close to him all the 
while. 

The water boys of the camp made an inter- 
esting picture, riding on their little fat, bushy- 
tailed mules with a keg of water swinging on 
each side like the old fashioned circuit rider's 
saddlebags. 

These saddlebags often contained more "first- 
lies," "secondlies," and "thirdlies" than the 
young people of the congregation wished to 



90 THE MORNING-GLORY 

hear, but more good resulted from them among 
the pioneers than can ever be calculated. The 
circuit rider of the early days, though he groaned 
much and was deep-voiced and long-faced, was 
the missionary who did most of the evangeliza- 
tion of our home land. Blessed is the memory 
of the circuit rider of early days, who, like Sam- 
uel, "went from year to year in circuit," to 
preach the gospel of the risen Lord. 

When Dr. Hite (for he was a physician) and 
Jo Brown rode off, they made a funny pair, to 
be sure — Dr. Hite, six feet two, on the biggest 
horse of the camp, with a new ax across his 
knees, guided and directed by little, dumpy Jo 
on a little fat mule ; but little, dumpy Jo had two 
good eyes, and big Dr. Hite would have gladly 
exchanged places with him for his wonderful 
possessions. Jo was to be his pilot for the day 
and initiate him, not into the mysteries of Ma- 
sonry nor the proofs of his profession nor the 
secrets of society, but to plain, old honest toil, 
from which he had so long ago drifted that na- 
ture had rebelled against a life of ease, luxury, 
and inactivity, and failure of eyesight had re- 
sulted; hence the advice of physicians had been 
(34) 



CROLEY'S CAMP 91 

taken, and Dr. Hite, the gentleman, the learned 
physician of Southern Louisiana, was a hired 
man in the woods of Arkansas. Never did he 
forget that day, when with untried hand he la- 
bored with difficulty to wield the ax which in 
the hands of the other men swung with such ease 
and dexterity. But when night came he relished 
the plain but wholesome fare and slept the sleep 
of the toiler. 

Thus for days, weeks, and months did Dr. 
Hite and Jo go out into the deep of the woods 
together and ride into camp late in the evening, 
telling the experiences of the day, with frequent 
glimpses into their lives as well, till they were 
friends such as are rarely found in persons so 
widely differing. 

One Monday morning as they rode to work To 
said: "Doctor, was you at the meetin' last night, 
and did you hear that little woman from town 
talk about folks doin' their best? That's Miss 
Kenny, the deaconess ; and it ain't only what she 
says is good, but she does good. My Aunt 
Milly (you know she's ma to me, 'cause I don't 
remember any other ma than Aunt Milly, and 
she's a good one too), she says as how she 



92 THE MORNING-GLORY 

comes out here and helps these women at the 
camp, showin' them how to do everything the 
easiest way, like cookin' without fire — did you 
ever hear tell of that, Doctor? Yes, they just 
start things to boilin' and then pack it in straw 
and things, and it goes on cookin' while the 
women do somethin' else. Then she reads to them 
and tells them how they can get such nice books 
so cheap that tell all about what the women of 
the country are doin' to help other women and 
children that's worse off than they are. Some- 
times one reads while the others sew. Seems 
like a good thing, don't it, Doctor? for they say 
some women do talk a heap. You know this is 
like other people livin' in the country ; they have 
more time to talk than the people livin' in town, 
where they have so much to do and so many 
places to go to; and when they get to talkin' 
about what other folks need, the first thing they 
know they are sellin' off some eggs and butter 
and sendin' money to help these people in dis- 
tress. Aunt Milly is just as full of it, and talks 
to me lots about it. I believe it's a good thing, 
don't you, Doctor?" 

Jo had a wise head on him, and had learned 



CROLEY'S CAMP 93 

a lesson in home missions that many of our 
wise men have not yet learned. There are many 
who yet look askance at the Home Mission So- 
ciety as an interloper, not recognizing it as the 
child of the Church, rightly ordained in its mis- 
sion of love and mercy to the world, embracing 
the work of the once popular "aid," adding to 
that the broad and blessed missionary spirit. 

Dr. Hite had heard Miss Kenny in her Bible 
talk to the people of the camp, and went to his 
car with a more restless spirit than he had ex- 
perienced for some time. Had he done his best 
with the opportunities that had been his ? was the 
thought that racked his brain and drove sleep 
from him till far into the night. With the her- 
itage of his fathers, both in character and world- 
ly possessions, had he made the most of life? or 
should he be found wanting if the scales of jus- 
tice were to weigh him to-night? Somehow the 
words of the little woman in black, "Have you 
done your best?" seemed to sink deeper in his 
heart than any sermon from his great bishop- 
uncle or any divine he had ever listened to, and 
he asked himself what it was about her mes- 
sage that awakened him at this late hour of his 



94 THE MORNING-GLORY 

life, and when it seemed too late to amend his 
ways. "I have not been a bad man ; but, O God, 
have I done my best ?" were the words which fell 
from his lips. 

The power of the Holy Spirit had quickened 
the words of the little deaconess, and the strong 
man asked help from the same source to be able 
to do his best. He knew that sacrifice had been an 
unknown word to him in the former years of 
his luxurious life, and now it seemed the debt 
was calling for its retarded payment all in a 
lump. Why was he, a wealthy, cultured profes- 
sional man in seeming good health, buried in 
the heart of the woods doing the work of a com- 
mon laborer and without the advantages of life ? 
Nothing seemed to arrest the blindness that 
threatened him as much as the manual labor that 
strengthened his whole system, and he was will- 
ing to give up his former pleasures for the re- 
covery of this treasured sense. Was it because 
he had been untrue and was now paying the 
penalty? Did he not well known that "to whom 
much is given much will also be required?" 
Deep in his heart in the deep of the night Dr. 
Hite determined that, if in the woods among 



CRO LEY'S CAMP 95 

the toilers by day or in the city's gay throng of 
the night, henceforth he would do his dead 
level best. 

When morning came Dr. Hite's eyes seemed 
stronger than they had been for months, and in 
the early light of the morning he saw for the 
first time that his big horse was a dapple-gray. 
Again was his memory flooded with the thought 
of a beautiful dapple-gray he once rode, a faith- 
ful horse which freely gave his life for his 
master, who thoughtlessly rode him to his death 
one day. He was kinder to his horse that day 
for the memory of the gray of other days. 

An interesting sight was when at evening the 
men came trooping in from the woods after a 
hard day's work, first turning the tired horses 
and oxen over for their food and drink, then 
going to the marker who keeps an account of 
the time the men work, and with quickened step 
to the car-home where a good supper awaited 
them. If still on the bachelor list, they heeded 
the call of George's bell ; which was a discarded 
saw hung upon a tree, upon which they knocked 
a merry tune with sticks. Another saw, hung in 
another tree, served to call the children to school, 



96 THE MORNING-GLORY 

and yet another announced the hour of worship 
in the tent near by; but none had the ring of 
the boarding car bell to which they hastened and 
where with merry jest they enjoyed a good and 
plentiful supper. 

George was tall and slim and the color of mid- 
night, with good eyes and plenty of ivory to 
lighten his face. No cook of ante-bellum days 
was more important nor more of a sovereign of 
all pertaining to this "boa'din' cah" than George, 
and every "boa'der," white and black, knew that 
he must not only behave himself while in the car, 
and pay his bills, but there must be no loafing 
around, as this sign distinctly read : ''Notice. 
Ever one is requested to stay out of the cook 
car. This replys to all, as I cannot afford to 
have a gangue round the inside of this car. 
Yours truly, George Johnson." George had evi- 
dently been a good speller, but had mixed his 
easy and hard words and made "gang" come in 
the latter class when it rightly belonged to the 
former. The notice served its purpose, and no 
more orderly "cook car" could be imagined nor 
better-cooked food, especially chicken pie and 
doughnuts, than could be found on George 



CROLEY'S CAMP 97 

Johnson's boarding car. He surely inherited his 
cooking, as well as bossing, qualities from some 
mother taught in a "Missus's" kitchen of the 
long ago. 

After the evening meal the men would gather 
about the little store or sit around on some logs 
telling jokes, playing the violin, or joining in 
some sweet old song till nightfall, when one by one 
or in groups of two or three they would quietly 
slip away to their cars for the night. Orderly, 
quiet, happy, and contented, these men fulfilled 
their mission by making the most of their en- 
vironments and looking life square in the face, 
saying : "We are ready to meet it." 

Thus Croley's Camp claimed a happy, jolly, 
crew of men, honest in their work, satisfied with 
their wage, and contented, which is the secret of 
all happiness. 

One night Dr. Hite lay, half waking, half 
dreaming, when a shot rang out on the mid- 
night air which echoed and reechoed till it re- 
sounded for miles around. The Doctor's first 
impression was to arise and see if any one was 
in trouble ; but thinking it not necessary to take 
upon himself another's troubles, he turned him- 
7 



98 THE MORNING-GLORY 

self over in bed and tried to go to sleep. But 
sleep seemed to have taken its flight with the 
sound of the shot, and he restlessly turned him- 
self till finally he arose and dressed and walked 
to the railroad track to see if he could find any 
cause for the firing of a gun at that hour of the 
night. Sitting on a pile of ties which he had 
helped to square and finish up for laying the next 
track, it was not long till the regular pitpat of 
feet walking the cross-ties fell on his ear. The 
moon had just cleared the tree tops, and with 
his improved vision he could see the outline of 
a man but could not tell who he was. With a 
little rising of his hair as well as his person, the 
Doctor said : "Who's there ?" 

"Me," said a familiar voice. Tom Jones knew 
he could trust the Doctor, beside whom he had 
worked for many weeks making cross-ties, so he 
went right up to him and said : "Doctor, I'm go- 
in' to leave the camp. Old Satan's got me again, 
and I'm not goin' to ask the company to bear 
with me any more. I know it has been all right 
with me ever since that meetin' in the tent 
that beautiful evenin' just as the sun was goin' 
down and Miss Kenny said: 'Men and boys, do 



CRO LEY'S CAMP 99 

your best/ I just wanted to work for the Lord 
all the time. If a man can drink whisky by the 
half-gallon, he wants to work just as hard in 
religion; and I just have to be busy all the time. 
You know things has been kinder quiet awhile, 
and I listened to the tempter and followed Bill 
Sykes over yonder in the woods where there's 
a blind tiger. We got to drinkin' and he got 
quarrelsome and I shot him. He's not hurt very 
bad; but I'm goin' clear away so I can begin 
all over again. About five miles due west of 
the camp, in a close thicket of small trees too 
small to cut for several years, you'll find a 
little hut. In it are some barrels, and you know 
what's in 'em ; and there are tables for gambling 
and plenty of old, greasy cards. I think you'd 
better clear 'em out before they get any more 
of Croley's crew. They haven't been set up 
long, but no tellin's the mischief they'll make in 
a short time." 

"Tom," said the Doctor, "don't go ; we'll make 
it all right. Straighten up and be a man, and 
the company will forgive you." 

"No, sir," said Tom ; "I've done this before ; 
and why I went to that place I don't know. Tom 



100 THE MORNING-GLORY 

Jones surely was not himself, and I can't re- 
member how I ever got there. I'm goin', and 
goin' now. My car is right here, you know, and 
I want you to send my trunk to Floss to-morrow, 
and somebody will call for it there. No use 
to try to find me, for I'm gone, and gone 
good." 

With a warm handshake Tom Jones said 
good-by, and Dr. Hite pressing his hand said: 
"Tom, old fellow, I'm counting on you. Don't 
forget our good times together; and, Tom, try 
to do your best." 

Next morning Tom Jones was missing in the 
cross-tie crew, but Mr. Croley said that Tom had 
been called away ana would be with them no 
more. 

Quietly but with firmness and alertness Dr. 
Hite and Tom Croley went about raiding the 
blind tiger. Finding the place from Tom's de- 
scription, and knowing the men by name, they 
went to the county seat on the pretext of a 
mock trial, and secured warrants for their ar- 
rest. Having the United States Marshal, with 
sufficient help, on the next Friday night after 
Tom Jones left on Tuesday, at about ten o'clock, 



CRO LEY'S CAMP 101 

they surrounded the blind tiger and closed in 
upon it. 

Imagine men made in the image of God, with 
clear brain, strong body, and capable of the high- 
est attainment, crouching in a hut in the dark- 
ness of the night, making themselves worse than 
beasts, drinking and carousing; then call that a 
good time. Abusing the freedom of their own 
rights and the liberty to do as they please, they do 
not realize that they are in a bondage worse than 
slavery — the bondage of sin. O that men could 
see the folly of taking into their systems that 
which transforms them into demons ! And when 
strong, good men want to rid this country of 
the evil of the liquor traffic the cry goes up: 
"You want to take our rights from us !" Has 
any man the right to degrade himself, destroy 
his will power, and bring ruin upon himself and 
family ? 

They realized at once they were caught in 
the trap, and without resistance went with the 
officers. Only two men of Croley's Camp were 
found among them, the other four being resi- 
dents of the country around who had been in- 
veigled by the scout who had led Tom Jones 



102 THE MORNING-GLORY 

to it. The money piled on the table where a 
heated game of cards was being played was di- 
vided among its rightful owners, and all were 
provided with horses to ride to the car waiting to 
take them to Floss and thence to the county seat. 
Eternal vigilance was necessary to keep the. camp 
clear of such mischief as this; but when Tom 
Croley was on to them, they knew the "jig was 
up." 

With all the love of man and the goodness of 
God, some things must be done by force ; there- 
fore legislation played its part in the freedom 
from this terrible traffic around the camps. But 
the determination of the people to be rid of this 
evil finally made them realize that they meant 
business ; so they sought other fields for their 
lawlessness, and shook from their feet the soil 
that was getting to be for them too holy 
ground. 

One other incident, and our view of Croley's 
Camp closes. One day in the woods a giant 
tree was felled, and in its crash to the ground 
took with it a tall, slender sapling that flew so 
far back when released that like a huge whip it 
struck Jo, the water boy, with such force it was 



CRO LEY'S CAMP 103 

thought for a while he was instantly killed, that 
being the cause of many severe accidents in a 
logging camp. But it was soon found that he 
was only badly stunned, although his left eye was 
seriously injured. A stretcher was quickly made 
from the soft boughs of the trees, and he was 
carried two miles to the camp ; and Tom Croley 
would have him carried to his car, where his 
wife could look after him. 

Dr. Hite never left him till his wound was 
nicely dressed and poor little Jo was comfort- 
able, using with as painstaking care his knowl- 
edge of the eye as if he were the most distin- 
guished patient he had ever treated and the 
largest fee awaited to reward his skill. For had 
not Jo been his friend, his guide, his eyes when 
darkness shut out the light of day? Nothing of 
Dr. Hite's was too good for Jo; and with his 
skillful treatment and the motherly care and 
kindness of Mrs. Croley — Aunt Milly had gone 
to see her only sister for a month — little Jo quick- 
ly rallied and was soon out, with a bandage 
over one eye. For a long time he wore the 
white strip across his eye, and Dr. Hite prided 
himself that it was alwavs white and clean. 



104 THE MORNING-GLORY 

For the small service Jo had rendered his 
friend one of greater merit had been returned 
to him ; for if he had not received the best at- 
tention, he would have gone through life with 
but one eye. "Cast thy bread upon the waters : 
for thou shalt find it after many days." 




CHAPTER VIII. 

FULFILLMENT 

'We cannot change yesterday, that is clear, 
Or begin an to-morrow until it is near; 
So all that is left for you and for me 
Is to make to-day as sweet as can be." 

JO busier body in all Floss could be 
found than May Kenny as the next 
Christmas holidays approached, 
sweetening each day as it came to 
her with loving- deeds for some one. Her mind 
was full of the things she wanted to do, and 
never an idle moment lingered unused or lan- 
guished upon her busy hands. 

The months she had spent as a member of 
Mrs. Regent's household had been the happiest 
in her work, for she was now beginning to see 
some results of her labor. And the transfor- 
mation of the rough lumber camp into a town 
of beauty was viewed as a miracle to all who 
beheld it now. 

With her anxiety to answer every call, to 
visit the sick and stranger, to work in the 

(105) 



106 THE MORNING-GLORY 

night school, and keep up the routine of work 
connected with the Church, one had but to look 
closely to see that the work was telling on her 
slight frame, adding to that deepening shadow 
that was overspreading the life of her other 
self and the buried love that lay unknown to 
others in the grave of her heart. 

With the good-by the tie that bound her 
heart to the heart of George Gaylor seemed 
suddenly to have snapped ; for no line of cor- 
respondence had ever passed between them. 
But as it was a cord of affection which severs 
slowly and heals but poorly, throughout the 
night time could be heard the drip, drip of her 
heart's blood in its ebbing flow. 

She felt that to have his letters come would 
have made it harder for her to keep on with 
her work; he felt that a manly love had been 
rejected, and was cut to the quick at the in- 
jury. 

How many times he wanted to send a letter 
pouring out his heart to the only woman he 
ever loved, but stubbornly persisted in his 
silence ! How many times would a cheery let- 
ter have brushed away all the care from her 



FULFILLMENT 107 

brow, and the tired feeling that often threat- 
ened to overcome her would have passed away ! 
But instead she could only recall the memory 
of that last night when he said : "I, too, shall go 
away ; but you will not know where." How she 
had longed to know whether he had gone East 
or West, to the land of the North or the land 
of the tropics ! If she could have pictured him 
somewhere, under some conditions, it would 
have been a comfort to her but for her to know 
only that he was gone — it seemed almost like 
he had gone into eternity. 

But while the little deaconess did not idly 
grieve nor foolishly bemoan the love she had 
given in exchange for her work, her life was 
touched into warmth and sympathy not only 
from deep religious principles, but because she 
loved and was loved. Who is not better for 
having loved? If the great passion, love, has 
not been kindled in the human breast, then is 
life unresponsive to the higher claims, and is 
cold, metallic, and unattractive. 

The autumn days had been filled with many 
pleasant surprises for her Baraca boys, they 
having received this week invitations to a hunt- 



108 THE MORNING-GLORY 

ing party made attractive by pictures of guns, 
pointers, or game. But it was a hunting party 
for other boys. Again it was a fishing trip, 
large draughts of fishes, with the words: "I will 
make you fishers of men." Then would come a 
real outing which all would enjoy. 

Although the maw of the mill seemed in- 
satiable and devoured many magnificent trees 
that told the history of a century in their hearts, 
there were a few historic trees within the 
limits of the lumber company's territory which 
were spared. Under the shade of these trees 
many pleasant outings were enjoyed by the peo- 
ple of Floss, who told over and over again the 
stories which lingered about them and fluttered 
in the breeze that fanned them year after year. 

One was a beautiful walnut tree under which 
they always gathered at nutting time, enjoying 
a meal in picnic fashion and gathering basket- 
fuls of the rich, large nuts for winter use. It 
was about three miles from Floss, near a little 
stream which threaded its way through a beau- 
tiful farm, standing on a hill and somewhat 
apart from the trees that fringed the brook on 
each side. This tree, tall and stately yet 



FULFILLMENT 109 

graceful, with its long, plumelike foliage, 
sheltered many a passer-by from storms which 
threatened to drench both man and beast. In 
the heat of a long march it was a cool shelter 
from a burning sun to a company of soldiers 
in the War between the States, and its rich nuts 
nourished many fainting from fatigue who 
were traveling thereby. It also shaded and 
made cool a well whose water had quenched the 
thirst of thousands. Its majestic bearing and 
dignity seemed to protect it and make one feel 
that it were a sacrilege to mar so beautiful a 
specimen of tree life. 

Another was a magnolia tree from which, per- 
haps, the magnolia tree of Arkansas has sprung ; 
and when the warmth of spring had opened its 
pure, white blossoms, many picnics were enjoyed 
under its spreading shade. 

Many years ago a young man from Arkan- 
sas sought the hand of a fair girl in Southern 
Louisiana. They went to the farm that touched 
the edge of the large forest which the Floss 
Lumber Company now owns, and there in hap- 
piness and contentment began to improve the 
home that was theirs. In a few months the 



110 THE MORNING-GLORY 

husband sickened and died, leaving the young 
wife heartbroken and alone. In looking over 
his wedding garments she found some seeds 
which he had evidently gathered at the time of 
their marriage. She planted them at the head 
of his grave, and there sprang up a beautiful 
tree with rich, glossy foliage that was always 
green. She knew it was the magnolia of Lou- 
isiana, the tree of the sweet-scented and pure- 
white blossoms, and the home of the mocking 
bird. What more beautiful monument could 
be had than this evergreen tree, representing 
life eternal, its pure blossoms emblematic of the 
good life of her departed one, inviting the song 
birds to nest therein and sing to him their 
sweet melodies when she was gone ! For more 
than half a century this magnolia tree has 
marked the place where a lover-husband lies 
sleeping, hidden all too soon from the girl wife 
who had come to a strange land a bride for his 
home ; but it also marks the gift to Arkansas 
of the tree emblematic of eternal life, purity, 
and of love itself. Dare one with impious hand 
touch the tree which, with widespreading arms, 
cool, restful shade, and perfumed breezes stands 



FULFILLMENT 111 

sentinel over the sleeping one who brought this 
gift to Arkansas? 

Ruthless hands have sent to the ground many 
such trees which told in fruit or flower, shelter 
or shade the story of beneficence or beauty to 
the passer-by, which, like a fallen life, hides its 
story in hasty decay. To those we would say 
with the poet: "O, spare that tree." 

Long enough before Christmas to hear from 
the parents of each boy in her class May Kenny 
wrote of her plan to give them a surprise on 
Christmas eve. She wanted to have an old- 
fashioned Christmas tree, with a gift to each 
one from the home folks, however far away, as 
well as the little gifts she was preparing for 
them. Not one was overlooked ; and in the 
days before Christmas mysterious little pack- 
ages came from the coal fields of Pennsylvania 
to Florida's orange land, from Virginia's old 
aristocracy to the new-born families of the 
West — even reaching to the Golden Gate of 
California and the snow-bound land of Alaska — 
gifts for the boys who had, like young eaglets, 
left the home nest and wandered to Arkansas 
and there had found a friend. Not until the 



112 THE MORNING-GLORY 

last mail before Christmas did all the presents 
arrive; and with that satisfied feeling that pos- 
sessed her when her plans were perfected, she 
gave the finishing touches to this tree with its 
varied gifts from various places. The most 
perfect pine of the forest around sparkled in the 
light of the myriad candles that tipped every 
bough, while graceful festoons of pop corn and 
cranberries brightened it into a thing of rare 
beauty. 

After pleasant greetings the door was opened 
into the dining room, where the boys (for they 
were all boys to her while in her care) were 
allowed to rush in as they did when in their 
childhood days the Christmas tree burst upon 
them in all its magic beauty and wonderful sur- 
prises. A tin horn for one, a jumping jack for 
another, and so on — a simple, childish gift for 
every one made the hour merry with fun and 
laughter such as they had not enjoyed since they 
were children around the tree at home. But 
carelessly scattered about the base of the tree 
and hanging from its low branches were the 
real gifts. In the stockings which she had 
made for them were the gifts from mother, 



FULFILLMENT 113 

just as she had wrapped them, with a mes- 
sage of love in her own handwriting sealed with 
a kiss from her loving lips. The intuition of 
each mother had caused her to send just the gift 
each boy wanted — a good knife for one, a late 
book for another, a fancy tie for the one who 
loved dress, and so on through the list. Their 
eyes sparkled with pleasure when they saw the 
Baraca arm bands which Miss Kenny had made, 
and, with deep wonder that she could do so 
much, received a pocket Testament with the 
subjects and texts for the Sunday school lessons 
for a whole year written with her own hand on 
the fly leaf of the book. 

It is needless to say it was a happy evening for 
teacher and pupils ; and when with a hearty wish 
for a merry Christmas the boys bade good-night, 
she said: "Go and sing some of your pretty 
songs for lame Tim. I know he will enjoy it." 
They heartily responded; and not only Tim, but 
every one who was shut in from sickness or 
sorrow at this joyous season, received a glad 
message of peace and good will from deep 
voices which sang of the peace within their own 
hearts. With life aglow with such happiness, 
8 



114 THE MORNING-GLORY 

sleep is not only a stranger but an unwelcome 
guest; so at a late hour the boys with happy 
hearts lay down for a short rest, dreaming that 
all the world was fair, that mother was near, 
and that Miss Kenny was always doing some- 
thing for them. 

That Christmas eve was the beginning of 
other revelations in the home that was hers 
these busy, happy months. The preacher had 
witnessed the happy scene of the Christmas tree, 
and found it such a good place that, he was 
loath to leave. After the boys were gone there 
were many things yet to be done — for who was 
ever ready for Christmas? There are some who 
make it a burden and steal from themselves 
and friends the real joy of the season with ex- 
pensive presents and trespassing into sanctu- 
aries with gifts where only holy feet should 
tread — those feet shod with the preparation of 
love. But on the whole the real spirit of 
Christmas enters the heart, and as the day nears 
the heart expands and takes within itself many 
more than at first planned. So with this happy 
household, as with many others, rrrysterious pack- 
ages were slipped here and there, telltale paper 



FULFILLMENT 115 

rattled as never before, and secrets were flying 
in the air. 

Still the preacher stayed, till finally Mrs. Re- 
gent said: "You must go and get some rest, or 
you will not feel like holding the Christmas serv- 
ice to-morrow." 

It seemed that he never felt so lonely in all 
his life as when he knew he must leave this sweet, 
happy place, where everything showed the touch 
of a woman's hand, to go to his bachelor quar- 
ters, which now seemed so dull and dreary. 
For a moment his great, dark eyes rested upon 
Miss Kenny in full appreciation of what she had 
done for the men and boys whom she had made 
so happy that evening ; then with that loving 
restfulness which seemed to say, "O heart, I 
have found a home," they dwelt upon the face 
of the friend and companion. May's eyes had 
dropped their lids beneath the gaze which she 
mistook, and did not see the story they told to 
the one by her side: that love had sprung up, 
full-grown, in a single hour and asserted the 
right to be sovereign of his life — not a love 
that must be fed by daily attentions to perfect, 
but, like Minerva springing full-grown from the 



116 THE MORNING-GLORY 

brain of Jupiter, perfect and complete as soon 
as it entered his heart and life. 

In a moment he could see the vision of a rest- 
ing place where the weary years of wandering 
and lonely hours would be changed to the perfect 
home life of which he had so often dreamed. If 
he could begin now and let the blessed Christmas 
find him a happy man, what joy would be his! 
But, taking out his watch, he found it nearly two 
o'clock. Realizing that he was making a spec- 
tacle of himself, he said: "Did you say I must 
go, Mrs. Regent?" 

"Yes, really you must go." 

With a hasty good night he went out into the 
cold, a sad, lonely man, but with a ray of hope 
shining in his heart as bright as the star in the 
East which pointed the wise men and the lowly 
shepherds to where there was peace and joy 
on that first Christmas night. 

And ever as the ages have passed love has 
brought happiness to the hearts of the rich and 
the poor, the lowly and the great, no less to the 
peasant than to the king on his throne — love that 
lights the whole world, without which it is a 
darksome way. "O love that wilt not let me 



FULFILLMENT 117 

go" was the love that he had found, which had 
brought to him peace and joy on this Christmas 
night. 

Need we words to tell our love? Does not 
the flower breathe it in the perfume or whisper 
it in the blossom when sent by a loving hand? 
Do we not see the love of the Father in the 
sunshine, the air, and the song of the birds, all 
telling that God is love? Are not the eyes the 
windows of the soul through which must gleam 
the story of the heart? So with no word to 
confirm her convictions, deep in her heart Mrs. 
Regent knew that, as many years ago a Saviour 
was born in Bethlehem, this night in Floss 
a love had been born and she was worshiped 
at its shrine. What woman does not know 
when she is loved and feels the thrill which sends 
new life into her being? Dare she revel in the 
joy of being loved when for six years she had 
felt that all her life would be spent as these, 
filled with a loneliness and longing for the one 
who was gone from her? To-night he seemed 
very near and saying: "Why weep, my love, for 
me ? Another seeks thy hand ; choose him and be 
happy." Her dreams that night were haunted 



118 THE MORNING-GLORY 

with large, dark eyes pleading for the cheer 
and comfort which she alone could give ; yet she 
turned him out in the dark, cold night and said : 
"Yes, you must go." 

The morning brought joy to many hearts, 
but none more real than to the little deaconess 
who had done so much to bring joy to others. 
In return for her remembrance to everybody, 
everybody seemed to have remembered her. 
Even the little children whose hands she had 
directed in packing a box for an orphanage 
before the holidays had not forgotten her ; and 
their simple gifts had made her happy. The 
boys had left on her table a beautiful Baraca 
pin and a check drawn on the Bank of Heaven 
for three hundred and sixty-five days of joy 
and happiness, not knowing how soon the check 
would be presented by the payee in person. 

But a brief day brought no rest to the tired 
body of the deaconess ; for if it was not duties 
which she sought, it was pleasures which others 
craved. Thus was the whole week one round 
of excitement, with little of the quietude which 
she so sorely needed. 

Two days after Christmas she gave an enter- 



FULFILLMENT 119 

tainment called "The Cry of the Children," rep- 
resenting the nations and the different lines of 
child labor in our country which are sapping 
the life from the children of to-day and giving 
to the world wizened, stunted men and women 
instead of the stalwart sons and daughters which 
are her natural heritage. The little boy of the 
glass factory was there with his little lantern to 
pilot him home in the early morning hours be- 
fore the sun peeped forth to herald another day. 
The children of China, Korea, and Japan made 
a plea for the gospel to light the playgrounds 
of their lands. The little girl of the factory 
was represented, who stood all day mending 
the broken threads in the cloth woven in the big 
factory which was the only place she knew out- 
side the two-roomed house like hundreds of 
others in the mill section where she lived. When 
asked if she wanted to go to heaven, she said: 
"No; 1 want to play some first." Even the 
baby of the land was there — not His Imperial 
Majesty of the happy household many of us 
know, but the neglected, deserted baby with no 
parents, or worse than none, left alone or in the 
alley with other unfortunates, their only friend 



120 THE MORNING-GLORY 

being the city missionary or the deaconess who 
cares for them all the day. The little boy of the 
coal chute, the paper mill, and every other enter- 
prise which reaches out for the young life in its 
greed for gain — all were represented. After each 
one had come forward and made its piteous ap- 
peal, from the need of the gospel to the natural 
instincts of childhood that had been outraged and 
left it no playtime, Miss Kenny in passionate 
words told how, as a band of women, the mission- 
ary societies of the Church had heard the cry of 
the children to which they had just listened, and 
were trying to answer that wail with the gift of 
the gospel-trained workers to care for the sub- 
merged mass that knows no God and fears no 
man, playgrounds, kindergartens, schools ; and 
in every way that sorrow, sin, and ignorance 
could be obliterated these women were meeting 
the problem before us to-day. Never were 
words spoken more feelingly nor hearts more 
touched by a missionary appeal. The men and 
women thronged about her, begging her to ac- 
cept sums of money, large and small, promising 
a regular contribution to carry on this work. 
Thus the fulfillment of the words, "and a little 



FULFILLMENT 121 

child shall lead them," resulted in an organized 
plan for the cause of missions from which 
sprang many personal responsibilities in the sup- 
port of missionaries. 

Her report to the Board for that quartet 
showed a larger garner of sheaves for the Mas- 
ter, and has been counted the best ever made 
by a worker in the field. 

So on and on as the days sped by she filled 
each one with loving deeds and helpfulness to 
the many who were touched by her presence. 

With hands laden with sheaves for the Master, 
She closed the work of a year to-day; 

Both flowers and fruit she gathered 
And scattered along her way. 




CHAPTER IX 

CLOSING OF THE FLOWER 

"To-morrow, God, O sweet to-morrow, 
Untouched and pure that New World lies, 

Thy world and mine; a golden strand, 
A golden dawn in cloudless skies — 

To-morrow is my Fairyland." 

GAIN has the wheel of time in its 
slow and measured turn made its 
many revolutions, and now leaves 
us upon the threshold of a new 
year. Let us not look at the old pilgrim bur- 
dened with his twelve months of toil, oft- 
times fraught with sorrow and disappoint- 
ment, but gaze into the bright face of the 
new-born year and there find hope, brightest of 
all gems, emblazoned upon it, which gives us 
new courage to brave any danger, meet any joy, 
or bear any disappointment that might be in 
store for us. 

Softly and at the midnight hour did the old 
pilgrim slip away into the past, and the young 

year with its future now starts upon his journey 
(122) 



CLOSING OF THE FLOWER 123 

to bestow upon mankind his precious gifts 
which he ekes out a moment at a time. How 
many golden gifts set with sixty diamonds must 
be accounted for at the day of reckoning, gifts 
of time that have been frittered away with no 
good deed to crown them ! 

Not so with May Kenny. The new year 
found her as busy as the old one had left her; 
and, unlike the young girl who was startled by 
a dream in which she saw herself dead at sixty 
years old without the record of a single good 
deed to her credit. May Kenny was doing more 
in her short span of years than many who are 
allowed to serve their threescore years and 
ten. Hers was truly a "long life distilled to a 
mere drop, falling like a tear upon the world's 
cold cheek to make it burn forever." 

With no further resolution than that em- 
bodied in her favorite poem, "Let Me Live 
Grandly," she entered into the new year with 
a heartiness of one who realizes that time is 
short, eternity is long, and that they who would 
know the Father must use well the precious mo- 
ments here. 



124 THE MORNING-GLORY 

"Give me the man soul, God — pure, brave, serene — 
To meet these days, 
Ready to walk, head high, with firm, sure tread 

The year's strange ways. 
Make me to fill each day with work well done. 
I would be soul-poised, great in gentleness, 

Gentle in power, 
Rich in self-giving, pouring life and love 

Into each hour. 
Let me live grandly, seek the things that last, 

Press toward love's goal; 
Win — jewels? Fame? Nay, better; when earth's past, 

Stand a crowned soul ! 
So be my helper, Father; comfort me 

With staff and rod 
Till I shall give thee back thy year well lived 

For man and God !" 

No more perfect fulfillment of the poet's beau- 
tiful words was ever seen than in the daily life 
of May Kenny, whose every moment was lived 
grandly for man and God. "One more day's 
work for Jesus" was the sweet refrain that 
closed each day and rounded out "one less of 
life" for her. She said: "All truths have not 
come from books — many lessons of love, faith, 
and patience have been learned from the lives 
of men and women whom I have touched. Step 
by step God has led me — sometimes through the 
mystery of suffering, sometimes through the dark 



CLOSING OF THE FLOWER 125 

ness of sorrow, ofttimes through the joy of 
service — but all have led me closer to him." 
Thus had her life transformed itself into a 
majesty of radiant and beneficent peace, bless- 
ing all mankind with its message. 

Late in February Mrs. Bright was taken ill 
of pneumonia, and would be satisfied with no 
one to wait upon her but Miss Kenny. Every- 
thing was against her — age, irregular habits, 
and a weakness from an attack of the same dis- 
ease when she w T as a child in Mississippi. But, 
like a Trojan, Miss Kenny fought the enemy, 
using her own skill in nursing and conserving 
that of Dr. Chappell in his absence, till on the 
seventh day Mrs. Bright passed the crisis and 
was considered out of danger. 

An all-day service had been planned for some 
time, at which all the organizations of the 
Church were to take part, each showing its 
mission and what was being done by it. Miss 
Kenny had come home from Mrs. Bright's just 
the night before, and Mrs. Regent urged her to 
stay at home and rest ; but she felt she would 
be untrue if she remained at home to rest when 
so important a service was being held. 



126 THE MORNING-GLORY 

No one knew with what effort she went 
through the meeting nor noticed till after it was 
over that she was pale and almost trembling. 
But with her fortitude she insisted that the 
walk home in the bracing air would revive her 
and she would be all right. Thinking that Miss 
Kenny could do everything, bear anything, no 
one noticed the tired look from her eyes and that 
the corners of her mouth were a little more 
drawn and a listless feeling was creeping over 
her. As the morning-glory closes its petals be- 
fore the strong light of the day, so did this 
Morning-Glory begin to close the delicate blos- 
som of her life in the morning of the year and 
before the noontide of her life. 

After a brisk walk in the crisp February air 
laden with the breath of the pines, Miss Kenny 
felt much better and gladly took the proffered 
paper handed her by Mr. Kromer. 

She lingered in the sitting room and enjoyed 
the cheerful fire till Mrs. Regent came from an 
errand which had detained her. 

Just as Mrs. Regent entered the room May's 
eyes fell on the headline, "Elmer Joy Disap- 
peared," and she said : "Little one, how are you ?" 



CLOSING OF THE FLOWER 127 

just in time to see the paper drop and her head 
fall backward. 

When May Kenny opened her eyes, she was 
lying on the bed in her room, and Dr. Chappell 
said: "I am surprised to find you so unwise 
in some things when you are so wise in others. 
Do you think you are made of iron and steel? 
Even they have a breaking point." 

"Yes, Doctor," she said. "Everything has a 
breaking point except the spiritual self. I was 
unwise, maybe." She thought her spirit would 
soon be freed from human weakness and know 
no breaking point. She needed nothing but 
rest and delicate nourishment. He would come 
again in the morning. 

After he was gone she asked Mrs. Regent to 
hand her the paper again, and she showed her 
what was breaking her heart. Her worst fears 
were realized ; and the cloud that had overspread 
the life of her little sister had broken into a storm 
that threatened to engulf her, and the great sor- 
row was more than she could bear. Too well 
she knew the good heart that beat in the breast 
of Elmer Joy, but who in a great temptation 
had been swept from his feet. A jovial fellow 



128 THE MORNING-GLORY 

whose least whim had always been gratified, he 
could not muster courage to stop the rapid gait 
into which he had of late fallen. "If thou hast run 
with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, 
then how canst thou contend with horses?" 

Next morning Miss Kenny's condition was so 
alarming that consulting physicians were called 
in, and examinations disclosed conditions of her 
heart which revealed the fact that she might 
leave them at any time. 

As the lodestone draws the magnet, so the 
prayers of May Kenny drew George Gaylor 
from his listless wanderings ; and on New Year's 
night he resolved in his heart that he would 
cease his travels and turn his face toward home. 
As well try to "flee the wrath to come" as hide 
from the prayers of May Kenny, which had 
followed him everywhere he went. Did he seek 
the pleasures of the world in the dance, the 
sweet spirit of May flitted about him at every 
turn ; did the card table find him seeking amuse- 
ment, her eyes looked out from the cards in 
sweet chiding ; and in whatever way he sought to 
drown his memory of her and her influence she 
seemed to be there pleading for his life for God. 



CLOSING OF THE FLOWER 129 

Completing but part of the tour he had planned, 
he left the Old World, seeking in the new but 
one image — that which had been in his heart 
since he said good-by nearly two years ago. 

From accident rather than from choice his 
course took him by way of Galveston again, 
and he was pleased to see that the Home Mission 
Society had opened a Christian Immigrant 
Home, with workers to greet the helpless people, 
but only one where many were needed. 

Taking the first train home, he was shocked 
to hear that May Kenny was ill, with no hope of 
recovery. Without waiting for further news 
he took the first train for Floss, which, from a 
wreck, was delayed till his loved one had gone 
on swift wings to another world. 

In the days through which she lingered she 
sent messages of love to little sister, praying 
that all would be well; and hoping, ever hoping 
that some word might come from George. 

On Tuesday afternoon the news was scattered 
that the little deaconess was dying. The people 
of Floss had been very considerate and left her 
quiet these first days of her illness, hoping she 
would recover ; but when the news came that she 
9 



130 THE MORNING-GLORY, 

was dying, work was dropped and pleas were 
made to see her. Realizing that the end was 
very near, she asked Dr. Chappell to give her 
something to strengthen her but not to make her 
unconscious when the end came. 

About four o'clock the people from the mill 
and all over the town began to come, Mr. Gate- 
well kindly excusing any employee who wanted 
to see Miss Kenny before she went to the glory 
land. 

Sitting up in bed (for that was the only way 
she could breathe), with face as white as the 
snowy pillow upon which it rested, her eyes 
luminous with the light of heaven and her smile 
showing already the glory of the other world, 
she spoke to every one by name and had a mes- 
sage for each one. Her great desire to save 
souls stayed with her to the last, and many in 
the throng about her bedside found for the first 
time the Saviour of their souls. 

Her Baraca boys were all there, and many oth- 
ers whom she had tried to win for the Master. 
Jealous that any opportunity might pass and a 
soul be left unsaved, she rallied all her strength, 
and said to each one as they passed her bedside 



CLOSING OF THE FLOWER 131 

and clasped her weak, frail hand : "Are you a 
Christian?" If perchance one said, "No," she 
asked him to kneel and say with her, "I can 
be and I will," not letting him pass till he 
found the Lord. Thus at the portals of heaven 
itself many were born into the kingdom; and if 
there be "joy in the presence of the angels of 
God over one sinner that repenteth," what a 
rejoicing amidst the angels there must have been 
then ! Like the blessed Master whom she fol- 
lowed, she wrought much in life; but only eter- 
nity will reveal the great work her death ac- 
complished. Till late in the evening the people 
kept coming, her vitality surprising the phy- 
sician, who silently realized that her strength 
came from the Great Physician. 

About eight o'clock she asked to be alone with 
Mrs. Regent, telling her again and again that 
it was all right, sending messages to different 
ones, with the words : "I'll be waiting for you and 
them. Now I must tell you George is coming, 
but it is too late for me. I know it is well with 
his soul." Before the light of this world closed 
in upon her she said : "I always knew it would be 
all right, but I never knew it would be so sweet 



132 THE MORNING-GLORY 

to go. It is so sweet! It is so sweet! It is 
almost time for my next report, but now I will 
make it in heaven. Tell the Board if I could 
have had my choice of the whole world I would 
rather have been sent to Floss than any other 
place. I have been so happy here." 

In her wandering mind during the short time of 
unconsciousness before the Father took her she 
said: "Has George come? Yes, George, it is 
all right." 

While her life was so gently slipping away and 
the Morning-Glory was closing before its noon- 
day sun, George Gaylor was speeding on the fast- 
est train to the bedside of his dying loved one. He 
knew that through all these months of unstinted 
service she had needed him, maybe had called 
for him, but his dull ears had not caught the 
message that was wafted to him day after day. 
O, why didn't he start sooner? But where was 
Floss, and who thought she would there hear the 
call of the other world for perhaps greater serv- 
ice? 

In the holy hush of that hour the few watch- 
ers, Dr. Chappell, Mrs. Regent, and the preacher, 
who had been, as she said, father, brother, and 



CLOSING OF THE FLOWER 133 

friend, felt that but a thin veil separated them 
from the glory land. 

Poor Mrs. Bright refused to be comforted, and 
sat in the hall by the open door weeping and 
watching with the others till the last. Her tribute 
to Miss Kenny was not in dainty flowers to 
breathe out their message on the casket which 
held her loved form ; but each day of her illness 
she brought fresh eggs and a pitcher of sweet 
cream, allowing Lady and her newest pet, Jersey, 
to lend in service to the friend who had done 
the most for her. No heart was sadder when 
they bore her away than poor Mrs. Bright, 
whose name belied the hard, weary days that 
marked her span of years which Miss Kenny 
had cheered more than any one she knew. 

As the new day quietly slipped in upon the 
watchers, May Kenny's spirit sweetly slipped 
away to the God who gave it, leaving the 
tired, worn little body to the care of the loved 
ones about her. All that loving hands could 
do was to fold away the garment with which 
her spirit had been clothed, and await the resur- 
rection, when she would be clothed in the robes 
of righteousness. 



134 THE MORNING-GLORY 

No one in Floss but the station agent knew 
that the regular train, due at 8 p.m., was late. 
All thoughts were centered upon Miss Kenny's 
going away; and no one noticed the shrill 
whistle that cut the midnight air as the train 
rumbled in a few minutes later. Among 
the passengers who left the train was one young 
man who was restless, nervous, and anxious. 
He went to the hotel, and there asked the clerk 
if he knew how Miss Kenny was, and heard 
with a dull thud at his heart that she had just 
died a few minutes before. All night he 
walked the floor of his room at the hotel, his 
mind harrowed with the words* "Too late ! too 
late! too late!" O fate that kept him from 
his love these last moments — cruel, relentless 
fate that withheld him, while his heart yearned 
to see her once more in life ! He wanted to go 
and claim her in death ; but not wanting to make 
a spectacle of himself, he refrained, and attended 
the funeral at the church as any other member 
of that grief-stricken town. 

Sitting at the back near the door, he could 
have touched her coffin as they bore her in. 
How could he sit and let other hands than his 



CLOSING OF THE FLOWER 135 

bear his only love ? Eighteen young men, wear- 
ing the Baraea arm bands which she had made 
the Christmas before, tenderly, reverently, and 
lovingly bore the casket up the aisle and rested 
it near the sacred place where many times her 
voice had told them of a Father's love. The 
mill had closed for this last sad tribute to her, 
and the church could not hold all who wanted 
to show their love for their friend. 

Never were words more feelingly spoken nor 
hearts more sweetly comforted than from the 
overflowing heart of Brother Deland, speaking 
from the words: "Blessed are the dead which 
die in the Lord from henceforth : Yea, saith 
the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors ; 
and their works do follow them." He forgot 
himself, forgot everything except that Miss 
Kenny's life, though closed on earth, had just 
begun in heaven, and that her works would fol- 
low her as a great work in which many would 
yet be brought to Christ. The preacher never 
was so stirred in the depths of his soul, and all 
said that they never before heard such words 
fall from human lips. One exception was George 
Gaylor, who sat unconscious that any word was 



136 THE MORNING-GLORY 

being said; for nothing had fallen upon his ear 
but the sermon of her life, lived in purity and 
perfection ever since he had known her. What 
need he hear words about his loved one? All 
through the service his mind was going over 
the times she had begged him to give himself to 
God; and there she lay before him, dead, and 
he could not tell her how sorry he was for the 
great mistake he had made. Had the people 
learned he had come for her, and were they 
leaving him alone with her? Yes, they were 
going, and he would soon be alone ; and then 
he could pour out his anguish over her dead 
body and maybe find some relief for his pent-up 
feelings. He had not seen the eighteen young 
men pledge themselves over her body that they 
would meet her in the glory land, and ask the 
privilege of keeping watch over her throughout 
the night till the early morning train which 
would bear her away to the old home in Georgia ; 
and he wondered why they lingered. 

Sending his card to Mrs. Regent, whom he se- 
lected as her companion, she came at once and 
gave him a warm handgrasp. She told the boys 
a friend claimed the privilege of the nightwatch, 



CLOSING OF THE FLOWER 137 

and they affectionately bade good-by to their 
friend and helper. 

As the night closed upon George, alone with 
his love in the little church where so much of 
her life had been given, her spirit seemed to 
soothe his troubled heart as he felt nothing 
could. She seemed to be yet pleading with him 
to give his heart to God; and there in the little 
church beside the sleeping form of his loved one 
he found the peace which his soul had sought in 
all his wandering. 

As the sun feebly showed the first sign of 
day, the preacher came to relieve him of his 
watching and give him time to prepare for his 
sad journey home. 

"You have had a lonely night, my brother." 

"O, no," said George; "it has been a sweet 
night in that I have found the Lord." 

The two shook hands, and then the preacher 
knew he could talk to him who was no stranger 
now. "I have prepared to take Miss Kenny 
home. May I accompany you?" 

"Why. certainly, Brother Deland, I'll be glad to 
have you. But I think it is an unnecessary trip. 
Suppose you go as far as the capital, though." 



138 THE MORNING-GLORY 

At Little Rock dear Brother Goodman met 
them, begging that the body of Miss Kenny 
might rest in their home the few hours of wait- 
ing they must spend there. They had loved her 
so in life that they rightly claimed the privilege 
of some loving service in death ; so, tucking some 
flowers here and there, adding a bit of soft 
lace for her burial robe, and receiving the bene- 
diction that the presence of her body left in 
their home, they too bade good-by to their friend 
and coworker till they should meet in the realms 
beyond. 

Everything was done to keep her body where 
she had so beautifully served, promising a mon- 
ument that would do credit to her memory; but 
the loved ones of the old home had a former 
claim, and the form of mother lay sleeping in 
Georgia's beautiful churchyard. Thence she was 
taken, and there beneath the flowers was she laid 
to rest. 

As the natural flower opens again its petals 
to the sun, so this Morning-Glory closed her 
life to open it again to the Sun of Righteousness- 




CHAPTER X 

AFTER A WHILE 

BUSY stir among the feminine 
folk of Floss foretold an event of 
much importance, even though it 
was a women's meeting. The men 
knew it to their discomfort; for it was house- 
cleaning time. They were asked to lunch at the 
hotel or eat on the back porch, sleep in a dif- 
ferent room, and imagine, if possible, that it was 
home, sweet home. 

Everything was topsy-turvy, and nothing could 
be found. If Mr. Jones wanted to lose the wor- 
ries of the day in a cloud of smoke, which curled 
gracefully from his brier-root pipe, Mrs. Jones 
told Mary to look in the back hall where the 
library table was, on which were piled pictures, 
books, and all sorts of bric-a-brac ; but under the 
sheet which protected all from the flying dust 
was father's burnt-wood box, holding all his 
smoking outfit. Father would have gone long 
without his pipe if he must find it ; and this but 
pictured the state of every household in Floss. 

(139) 



140 THE MORNING-GLORY 

For it takes a woman's eye to see the dust of 
another's household, even though she may have 
plenty of her own. 

So there was a flutter and a stir that every- 
thing be spick and span for the women who were 
to come from all over the State. 

When the last pie, with its beautiful frilled 
edge, was placed on the shelf beside its many 
counterparts, Mrs. Rhodes said: "Well, it is a 
trouble to have the meeting at your own home. 
When I went to Joneston last year, everything 
passed off so smoothly; and who would 
ever have thought it was so much trouble to 
find homes for them. Yes, everybody is nice 
and takes some one; but then they didn't know 
Mary Bell was going to have the measles, or 
Johnny Jones the mumps, or that Mrs. S. would 
have no cook, or that company would come in 
on others, or that many unexpected troubles 
would arise all at once. After every one is as- 
signed to a home and the committee is worn to 
a frazzle, Mrs. B. hears that an old schoolmate 
is coming and she wants to swap guests with 
another. Mrs. A. and Mrs. J. come from the 
same place and have one trunk in common, there- 



AFTER A WHILE 141 

fore the pawns of the checkerboard must be 
moved again and the whole plan of the game 
changed. Mrs. C. has corns and must be near 
the church, and she must exchange places with 
Mrs. Q. Then there are a dozen or more who 
have not sent their names — no one knew they 
were coming — yet they must be welcomed with 
a smile. I do declare, women should be more 
thoughtful." 

Yet with all this worry and fixing, who can 
say that great things did not come from that 
meeting and many others of like intent and in- 
cidental worries? 

The soft, warm days of springtime had not 
only mellowed the cold earth from a cold, cheer- 
less February, when all the town was bowed in 
grief over the loss of their loved deaconess, 
Miss Kenny, to a bright, beautiful May day 
filled with the perfume of flowers, but their 
sorrow too had softened under the influence of 
the Comforter, and the memory of her was the 
sweetest recollection in all the history of Floss. 

More than usual interest was centered in this 
Conference when it was known that from its 
General Board Miss Kenny received her com- 



142 THE MORNING-GLORY 

mission to serve them as deaconess. Although 
every heart showed the disappointment in not 
having Miss Kenny with them in the flesh, yet 
the sweet spirit of her life so pervaded the meet- 
ing that every one present felt the holy influence 
that rested on them like a benediction. Like a 
seed that had fallen into the ground and quick- 
ened into new life manifold, her spirit seemed to 
have entered the hearts of every one there and 
quickened them into lives of fruitful bearing. 

Not only were the hundreds made better whose 
lives she had touched, but many felt constrained 
to give themselves to definite service, choosing 
as their badge the simple costume that marks 
the order of the deaconess. 

A beautiful tribute to her memory was the 
gift of $3,000 for a May Kenny deaconess 
scholarship, by which her name would be per- 
petuated in that Conference and a new worker 
take her place in the field every year. 

Thus we see in part why the Father called 
her to himself; for "he that believeth on me, the 
works that I do shall he do also; and greater 
works than these shall he do; because I go 
unto the Father." 



AFTER A WHILE 143 

The visitors carried with them not only visions 
of a perfect life, but the memory also of a 
model town of the twentieth century. 

Added to the conveniences of former times 
was the motor car which quickly took visitor, 
doctor, or manager to the camps fifteen or twenty 
miles away. But for an outing nothing was 
equal to the logging train, which took jolly 
parties to the woods for recreation. The up- 
to-date hospital with the best equipment fur- 
nished relief and splendid care for the sick or 
injured, and. every convenience seemed to have 
been utilized for the expediency, comfort, and 
pleasure of the workers. 

Another night the train was late — a dark, 
rainy Friday night — and a woman with a 
baby was a passenger for Floss. The baby was 
tired, restless, and sleepy, the woman worn with 
the care of the baby and presenting an appear- 
ance not altogether pleasing. Why should a 
woman travel with a baby? Would you confine 
her always to the narrow precincts of the home 
because, forsooth, a baby opens its eyes to her 
in this wonder world? 

The hotel man's big, kind eyes showed his 



144 THE MORNING-GLORY 

big, kind heart, and with a tenderness akin to 
woman's he received the worn little woman with 
the tired little baby, wondering why women at- 
tempt such hard things in life. Placing her in 
a room next to his wife's and keeping his ear at- 
tuned to answer the cry of the baby, he dropped 
off to sleep and dreamed that an angel had come 
to them unawares because he was "not forget- 
ful to entertain strangers." 

No prospect of any fee had entered the mind 
of Mr. Caraway when the little woman ap- 
peared at his desk — not that she was a pauper 
guest, but from a peculiarity unknown to other 
hotel men there were some people from whom 
no amount of persuasion would induce him to 
take a fee. Such was his guest this late, rainy 
Friday night, and his home was opened to her 
with the welcome of a prince. She forgot she 
was in a hotel for many reasons, among which 
was the fellowship of the guests that made it 
like a big family. 

Next morning the sun chased away every 
cloud, and the tired, worried feeling of mother 
and baby had gone with the night, and all was 
bright and fair that June morning. 



AFTER A WHILE 145 

That afternoon Mrs. Caraway wanted to take 
her guest to the clubhouse, for it was ladies' 
day, and that was a happy event of the week. 

Two ladies welcomed them, and in the few 
minutes before other ladies came they went 
through the building. The broad veranda all 
around was but a type of the breadth and scope 
of the work within. The spacious hall, where 
were comfortable leather seats, a fountain dash- 
ing its spray of clear water, a big clock — every- 
thing to attract the visitor was there. To the 
right was the library, well lighted and filled with 
choice books ; to the left were parlors, with grand 
piano and beautiful furniture ; to the back were 
billiard room, dining room, and kitchen; above 
were gymnasium and auditorium, perfect and 
complete enough to do credit to any city. Soon 
the ladies came, and a delightful afternoon it 
was. 

Mrs. Wilkins announced that they would read 
the latest home mission book, and while some 
sewed their fancywork or simply rested and 
enjoyed the hour she read of the great work 
the women are trying to do. 

After a social hour over the refreshments, the 
10 



146 THE MORNING-GLORY 

stranger guest said to Mrs. Caraway on their 
way to the hotel: "How long have you had these 
delightful days at the clubhouse?" 

"Ever since Miss Kenny started them, more 
than a year ago. We never miss ladies' day." 

Next day at the post office the stranger heard 
a little boy say to Mrs. Regent as he passed her : 
"Mrs. Regent, don't you miss Miss Kenny?" 

"Why, certainly, Dennis. Did you know her?" 
Seeing that he was a little boy of a Roman 
Catholic family, she knew that he had never en- 
joyed her clear Bible stories which the other 
children had, but he had heard her cheery "Good 
morning," and knew of her kindness to lame Tim. 

"Sure I did, and I certainly miss her," said 
the boy with a real bereavement. "She was so 
good to everybody. And when she said 'Good- 
morning,' it seemed like she was wishing you a 
real good morning, and an all day too." 

From such words as these the stranger learned 
that the influence of May Kenny's life rested on 
that town like a halo of light, touching every- 
thing with a sweet sacredness. 

After a visit which was restful and refreshing, 
the woman with the baby returned to her home. 



AFTER A WHILE 147 

Not long after Mrs. Caraway received a let- 
ter from her, saying: "The Lord has been good 
to me and given me a large possession. I send a 
tenth to build a May Kenny Memorial Church 
which shall be more adequate to your needs, and 
allow me to honor the most beautiful life it has 
been my pleasure to know. 'Render therefore 
to all their dues : tribute to whom tribute is 
due ; . . . honor to whom honor.' ' ; 

Feeling that the little church had been hal- 
lowed by the presence of their now sainted dea- 
coness, they used the material in building a 
parsonage, which now sits in the shade of the 
new stone church. 

Again the Christmas holidays drew near, and 
the parsonage was finished except for the few 
touches here and there which make a house take 
on a homelike appearance. 

One evening, as the December darkness closed 
in and shut out the thoughts of the day, the 
preacher walked over to the home where the 
morning-glories festooned the room in white, 
where lived the one his heart had enthroned on 
that Christmas night a year ago, and he said: 
'The parsonage needs a preacher, and the 



148 THE MORNING-GLORY 

preacher needs a wife. I too have a room in 
morning-glories, in memory of our sainted lit- 
tle friend, the Morning-Glory of Floss. Will 
you come?" 



APR 27 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: May 2006 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 






One copy del. to Cat. Div. 









lllllllllimilU! 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




017 527 085 1 § 



